


The Misadventures of the Culture Festival Labyrinth

by Silvex



Series: Labyrinths of Life [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Genre: Bad Cooking, Cute Kids, Established Relationship, Gen, Mythology References, Nanako DLC, Tarot, Team Dynamics, The Velvet Room (Persona Series)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2019-08-24 13:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 63,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16640906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvex/pseuds/Silvex
Summary: All Hamuko wanted to do was go to Tartarus and fuse a new Persona. She's not entirely sure how that turned into navigating a strange school with a new group of Persona Users.On the bright side, now she has more time for Social Links! ...Actually, that might not be such a bright side, after all.





	1. Welcome to the Velvet Room

Sep. 25, 2009

 

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." Yuki Hamuko nodded at the speaker.

"Hey, Igor. Is there any chance I could talk to Theo alone here? I need his help with something- and lots of time."

"Very well. I shall be in the back if you need me. Try not to take too long- the Room tends to get unstable." Igor turned and left, and Hamuko let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't that she didn't think he could help her, it was just a feeling she had.

"Hamuko-sama, what is it you wish to ask of me?" Her faithful attendant asked.

She sighed. "You recall what my Social Links looked like a week ago. I was sick during the typhoon, and when I woke up..." She waved her hand at the table, causing the bonds in question to appear. "I'm fairly certain, amongst other things, that my Moon Link had yet to max. And I think I'd remember something like that happening."

"You would, wouldn't you?" Theodore agreed. "At least, in most cases. You may not recall, but this is not the first time that we have spoken alone in this room."

That... that couldn't be right, but... a flash ran through her mind, and she saw a face, recalled a name. Seta Souji, also of the Fool Arcana.

"Could you remind me?"

* * *

 

 

Sep. 20, 2009

 

"It's too bad it got canceled in the end. It would've really been something to look back on," Iori Junpei commented, leaning back against one of the pillars of Tartarus.

"It's not that bad... there's always next year," Takeba Yukari replied.

"And it's not like there was any other choice," Yamagishi Fuuka pointed out. "What if someone had gotten hurt?"

"That's why we had to cancel," Kirijo Mitsuru agreed. "I feel bad about it, but..."

"Nobody's blaming you, Mitsuru," Sanada Akihiko cut her off. "It just shows that even we can't fight Mother Nature." The topic ended there, thanks to a single observation from Aragaki Shinjiro, sitting next to him.

"Huh...? Where'd she go? I don't see her anywhere..."

"If you mean our leader, she is standing in the corner like always. She mentioned something about a new Persona," Aigis informed the rest of them.

Amada Ken glanced at her. "It's that place only she sees, right? The... Velvet Room, was it?"

"I think that's it," Junpei nodded. "Hamu-tan's lucky, getting to change her Persona like that. I wish I had that kind of power..."

"So we're aware..." Yukari sighed.

"What do you think her Persona will be like this time?" Ken asked. Next to him, Koromaru glanced up.

"Arf!"

"Koromaru says 'I want it to have big bazongas!' Ow!"

"Please... I didn't hit you that hard," Yukari told him. "Are you stupid or something?" Junpei decided to back away from Yukari.

"Koromaru-san seems to be concerned for our leader," Aigis stated. "She was confined to her bed for two days, after all."

"She's probably fine. Can you imagine-?" Junpei cut off as they all remembered the times Hamuko had insisted on coming to Tartarus despite being sick. "...Never mind. But it's not like we can go anywhere, anyway."

"We came because she said something was bothering her," Yukari stated. "But there's nothing really here, so... What's that!?" They all glanced around, looking for the source of the ominous-sounding bells. Eventually, however, they faded away.

"...It stopped."

"What was that...? Whatever it was, stay alert, just in case!" Mitsuru ordered. Fuuka pulled out her Evoker.

"I'll have Lucia take a look around... Aah!"

"What's wrong!?"

"There was a spider by my feet... Where'd it go?"

"A spider...? In Tartarus?" Akihiko asked.

"It must have been my imagination..." She muttered, shaking her head. "I'll just have Lucia check-"

* * *

 

 

Hamuko glanced around the Velvet Room. She'd never been there without Igor around before. Theodore stood in the normal spot, however, so at least she wasn't totally alone.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room... this place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter... How unexpected for you to visit while my master is away." That was one way to put it. She wasn't even sure that Igor could leave the room to begin with.

"Yeah, about that... where is Igor, anyway? I wanted to fuse something..."

"Unfortunately, he has... business to take care of with his own master. However, I have basic knowledge of the fusion process, which should hopefully be sufficient for your needs... you don't require anything more than a triangle spread, I hope?"

"That should be fine," Hamuko agreed, already sorting through her mind for the cards she wanted. "So long as I get to put them in the Compendium first- never know when I'll need them again, after all!"

A door in the back of the Velvet Room opened. "Theo, do you really think that you can serve her properly? Step aside."

"E-Elizabeth!" The young woman turned to face Hamuko.

"I am Theodore's older sister, Elizabeth. I trust he has been serving you well up until now? I apologize for any incompetence due to his inexperience."

"But I have just as much experience as you..." He sighed. "I'm sorry about her. She's... a bit much, at times. She is currently staying beside me as a precaution."

"A precaution? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, really. The Room just tends to destabilize when its master is not here. Besides which, there is currently a storm raging in the outside world..." Well, that much she did know about.

"The typhoon, right? Is there a connection?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Storms shake things up. Not just the body, but the heart, as well. One's resolve, one's inner strife, one's hidden thoughts... Everyone closes their eyes during a storm, for that is when the world within begins to encroach..."

"Poetic, isn't she?" Hamuko muttered to Theo, earning a small smile in return. Elizabeth continued as if she had not noticed.

"One will have no choice but to face what has gone hidden while their eyes were averted... There are storms that can shake up fate, and even time itself."

"In any case," Theo stated, returning to the main topic. "If you will bring out the Personas you wish to fuse..." Red lights began flashing throughout the Velvet Room. "...An alarm?" The lights flickered off, and when they came back on, there were far more than three people in the room.

"Wh-what the-!? What's going on!?" Yukari asked. Mitsuru glanced around.

"Is this... an elevator?" Hamuko carefully counted the new arrivals.

"Mitsuru-senpai, Akihiko-senpai, Shinjiro-senpai, Yukari, Junpei, Fuuka-chan, Koro-chan, Aigis, Ken-kun... everyone!?"

"What could this mean...?" Theodore mused. Elizabeth, meanwhile, gained a mischievous grin.

"Uninvited guest in a private chamber... That can only mean that the culprit is among us!"

"C-culprit!?"

"Ignore her," Hamuko told everyone. "Please. She's joking. At least, I hope she is." The glare and aura of death were enough for the elder sibling to back away.

"My sister's sense of humor aside, this is a facet of fate as well... and perhaps a beginning. After all, nothing in this Room happens without reason. I am Theodore, and this is my older sister Elizabeth. We are residents of this Velvet Room."

"So, this is the place you go for Personas?" Yukari checked. Hamuko nodded.

"Yep! Igor's- that's the guy who runs this place- not here at the moment, though, but Theo's always been helpful to me. Elizabeth's new, though."

"So why are the rest of us here?" Akihiko asked. Theo sighed.

"As to that... even we don't know. People aren't supposed to be able to enter here without forming some sort of contract, or..." And that was when the elevator that was the Velvet Room stopped rising.

"I don't think this is supposed to happen..." Hamuko stated, glancing up. "Not for a long time, anyway... I'm still missing a few Arcana for that."

"Have I ever told you your mind's a scary place?" Yukari asked her.

"Only every time I've summoned a Devil or Death Persona, Mara, or Legion," She replied.

"This feels like one of those rides at the amusement park," Junpei commented. "You know, the ones where-"

She turned on him. "Iori Junpei, don't you dare finish that sentence!" It was too late, however, and thus they all began falling.

* * *

 

 

Hamuko glanced back at the fortuneteller's tent that they had all emerged from. "Well, at least I won't have to worry about losing the Room!" She commented, running the blue velvet between her fingers. "But... this is a school culture festival, isn't it?"

"A Culture Festival... The charged ceremony of excitement which students hold once every year...! Charmingly amateur delicacies, attractions bursting with that handmade warmth...! And for a finale, I've heard that students dance like madmen around an infernal flame...!"

"Again, I would like to reiterate that I literally just met her," Hamuko stated. "I have had no part in this."

"So... it's not true?" Theo asked. She shook her head.

"Not that last part, anyway. The rest should still be pretty fun, though."

"You really want to sign up for this obviously weird Culture Festival, Hamu-tan?" Junpei asked. She shrugged.

"Why not? Do you have any better ideas? ...What is it, Theo?"

"Hamuko-sama, if you could explain to me the process behind this 'cotton candy'..."

"...No, it's not actually cotton. I swear, between you and Aigis..."

"Anyway!" Elizabeth declared. "I would just like to inform you that it was not by our will, but the Velvet Room's that you were all invited here." Hamuko could believe it. With everything that went on in that room, she was honestly surprised that nothing like this had happened already. "The Velvet Room is inseparable from the fates of its guests. Nothing meaningless happens there."

"...Are you saying that our arrival here was inevitable?" Mitsuru asked.

"One could even say that it was destiny..."

"Destiny, huh...? What could we need to be here for?" Ken asked.

"I suggest that we go scouting." Koromaru barked in agreement with Aigis' statement. Mitsuru nodded.

"All right, let's all split up and search the area."

"We should inspect the Velvet Room," Theodore stated. "Hamuko-sama?" She glanced at the festival around her, before shrugging. There'd be time for that later.

"Yeah, good idea. Try not to have too much fun without me, guys!"

* * *

 

 

Hamuko glanced around the interior of the Velvet Room. Where it used to be an elevator, now it was simply a normal room, with two large, locked doors. Lights close to the ceiling continually rotated, causing the Major Arcana to drift across the floor.

"The Velvet Room appears to now be stationary," Theodore observed. "And those doors... well, this is certainly without precedent."

"Four locks... someone must really want these doors to stay shut, huh?" She commented, stepping forward and flicking the heart-shaped one, which glowed with electricity. "Ow! This was not a good idea!"

"Step aside." She did so, not particularly liking the look that was in her friend's eyes. A few moments later, the interior of the Velvet Room was engulfed in a white explosion, yet everything remained intact. "...Well, so much for that."

"...Theo, remind me never to get on your bad side..." Hamuko muttered, having suddenly come face-to-face with her own mortality. "And please never do that again."

"I apologize. I did not mean to startle you."

"It's fine. Come on, the others should probably be back by now." The two of them exited the tent again, to see everyone else returning.

"There's something weird about this place," Junpei started. "Nobody listens to me, or answers any of my questions. It's like I'm not even there!"

"I ask them where this place is, and they just say 'Yasogami High'," Yukari agreed. "I ask them where that is, and they just go off on a tangent about the festival..."

"I encountered no students who acknowledged Koromaru-san's presence, or the fact that I was not human," Aigis reported.

"Weird... normally, you'd expect someone to speak up about that."

"Has anyone checked outside the school?" Mitsuru asked.

Shinjiro nodded. "Yeah... looks like we can't get out."

"Can't get out?"

"There's a school gate, but you take one step past it and you're back inside."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. As soon as I thought I'd gotten out, I found myself back inside. Aki tried hopping the fence... same result. We can't leave."

"What if we tried going back the way we came?" Fuuka suggested.

Hamuko shook her head. "That won't work. For some reason, the Velvet Room isn't an elevator anymore. There's doors, but the locks are electrified. Theo tried using Megidolaon on them, but nothing happened, so we can't even throw Ken-kun or Akihiko-senpai at them. Elizabeth, don't you dare try it yourself." Elizabeth sighed in defeat.

"Wait, are you saying...?"

"...Yeah. We're trapped here."

"But- but I need to see Chidorita in the hospital!"

"Junpei, not now."

"Hey, what about our cell phones?" Yukari suggested. Immediately, everyone took out their phones... "Wait, we all brought our phones out during Dark Hour?"

Hamuko shrugged. "It was in my bag. I'm not sure about everyone else, though... well, besides Aigis, but she's pretty much her own phone, so... and no service. Figures."

"No GPS, either," Ken noted.

"G...P... I-I see. That's a problem."

"Is it possible... that we might never be able to leave here...?" And when Mitsuru got like that, you knew it was bad.

"The Velvet Room is a place where nothing meaningless happens," Elizabeth stated. "And it was the Velvet Room which brought you all here... This indicates that there is something that must be done here."

"Something that must be done...?"

"Until you accomplish whatever it is, you'll most likely be trapped here... as for what that might be, I suggest you ascertain it for yourselves."

"They're not going to give us any more advice," Hamuko told everyone. "They're cryptic like that. Hey, can I still-" She cut herself off, casting deep into her mind. Orpheus, Thanatos... Orpheus, Thanatos... and nothing else.

That... that would make things difficult.

"Can you what?" Theo asked.

"It- it's nothing. Never mind." She'd bring it up if it ever became important.

"I got it! The Culture Festival at our school was canceled, so we're meant to enjoy this one! Right!?" It was clear from his tone, however, that Junpei wasn't even fooling himself.

"But how would we enjoy it? It may be my imagination, but I'm sensing Shadows somewhere..."

"That seems natural, I believe."

"Huh...?"

"This is not reality. Time and space are not fixed... or, rather, they hold no meaning. It likely exists someplace much 'deeper' than the Velvet Room."

"It's something like Tartarus," Elizabeth clarified.

"So we're in a place like that, and you said that we have something to accomplish here," Akihiko started, looking thoughtful. Hamuko groaned. Her job would be so much easier, if it weren't for the fact that she swore all of her male teammates save Koromaru were trying to get themselves killed. "That can mean only one thing...!"

"Akihiko, it's a bad habit of yours to be so excited by the prospect of fighting." At least she had Mitsuru. Mitsuru could be sensible.

"Well, is there some other way? We can't leave the school, we can't use our phones, and we can't call for help. On top of that, there are Shadows around somewhere. Is there any other way to handle the situation?"

Mitsuru just sighed. "You're right... For now, that is all we can do."

"That's all we can do!"

"Don't get excited. This wouldn't normally be the time for us to stick our necks out." Hamuko considered pointing out the fact that it had been Dark Hour last time she'd checked, but decided against it. Mitsuru was scary.

Akihiko turned to Shinjiro. "You think there'll be some good enemies here?"

"Who knows..."

"Yamagishi, where did you sense the Shadow reading from?" Mitsuru asked. "Actually, if you could lead us there..." And that was just what Fuuka did.

* * *

 

 

"'You in Wonderland, huh...?"

"The flier says, 'Now you can walk in Alice's shoes!' It must be an interactive display."

"That's okay," Junpei shrugged. "I never wanted to walk in Alice's shoes."

"Huh? But it's every girl's dream!"

"Guess I wasn't a girl..." Yukari sighed. Hamuko shook her head.

"I mean, maybe when I was, like... six? Back when I still had parents, at least."

"We should try to avoid needless combat, but this may be our only clue to a way out," Mitsuru stated. "Proceed with caution, Yuki."

"Don't I always? ...Don't answer that," She muttered, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Well, either way-"

"Wait. It's dangerous in there." They all turned around, to see a boy and a girl wearing modified versions of the Yasogami High uniforms.

"Don't go inside," The girl told them. "There are monsters in there."

"Who are you?" Mitsuru asked. It was the boy who spoke this time.

"I am Zen, and this is Rei. That is what we call each other. And who are you? Where did you come from?"

"They're actually talking to us!" Junpei cheered.

"Where...? Um... do you know Iwatodai?"

"Iwato...?" The girl paused, and then shook her head.

"Where is this place, anyway?" Yukari asked.

"It is what it is."

"So... Yasogami High?"

"Yasogami... High..." Hamuko decided that there was definitely something wrong with Rei, and that helping her would probably be a good idea. "...Yes."

"You're students here, right? You're wearing the uniforms."

"...Yes. We're... students at this school."

"And where is it? And what's with this place? There's Shadows here, have you ever been attacked by any?"

"Sh-Shadows?" Hamuko decided to answer that one.

"Masked monsters that like to snack on people's brains. My friends and I are a group meant to fight them."

"Hamuko-san... I sense something from Rei-san..." Aigis spoke up. "I want to learn more about Rei-san... But... why?"

"Do you at least know where the exit is?" Yukari kept questioning the new people. "We want to go home."

"Go... home?"

"It is important that we return," Mitsuru stated. Rei glanced down.

"I want to go back too. Zen, I want to go back, too!"

"Go back where, though?"

"You don't know?" Fuuka asked. And that was when Hamuko realized it was going to be a long adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Today I realized that I have yet to see a full PQ novelization. This was probably a bad idea, but, well... now you get to see how Hamuko and the others met?
> 
> ...How much dialogue can one game even have? I didn't even make it to the first save point!


	2. The First Campaign

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko leads a party through Wonderland for the first time, while trying to hide the fact that she only has one easily-controlled Persona.
> 
> It actually goes better than she'd hoped.

"We were here when we regained consciousness. We don't remember anything before that," Zen stated.

"Our memories were taken," Rei elaborated.

"You mean... someone stole your memories? Who?" Shinjiro asked.

"I don't know."

"Even though you remember someone taking them?"

"Even though we remember someone taking them."

"Then how did you guys get here...? Wait, you won't remember that either."

"We don't remember that either."

"Maybe you guys fell here like us, and got stuck?" Junpei suggested.

"We can't rule it out..." Mitsuru admitted. Hamuko sighed. It seemed like they were still going nowhere.

"Fuuka-chan? What's the matter?"

"Could the one who stole Zen-kun and Rei-chan's memories be here? Maybe it's the same one who trapped them here..."

"Well, Mitsuru-senpai's right in that we can't rule anything out just yet. It's possible." Just what she needed. But at least an enemy, she could fight.

"...No, I'm sure they're here."

"Do you sense something, Akihiko-senpai?"

"Nah. It's just that it'd be more fun that way. We just have to defeat them and get outta here. Simple as that."

"Zen, let's leave together, okay? I want to go back, too."

"All right. If that is what you wish," Zen decided, before admitting, "Ever since I heard that bell, I felt it was important for us to enter this Labyrinth..."

"Bell...?" Hamuko asked. "I didn't hear any bell."

"We heard one in Tartarus earlier," Mitsuru explained. "A few moments later, we ended up in the Velvet Room." Right. Ominous bells that could pluck her friends from reality. Somehow, that didn't surprise her as much as it should have.

"I have a favor to request. If you are going to enter this Labyrinth, I ask that you take us with you. We won't be any trouble. I will protect Rei, and I can fight the monsters in the labyrinth."

"Do you mean to say... you're a Persona User?"

"Persona? I don't know what that is."

Hamuko sighed. "As much as I hate to bring people without Personas someplace dangerous, it wouldn't be right to turn them down." Turning to Zen and Rei, she gave her best smile and held out a hand. "Welcome to SEES! I'm Yuki Hamuko, and I'm the field leader. Looking forward to working with you."

"Well then, let us do this," Zen stated, taking the offered hand. Next to him, Rei nodded.

"Well then, let's do this. It's nice to meet you all!" She giggled. "And now that that's out of the way, I'm feeling hungry!" With that, she puled a chocolate-covered donut out of nowhere. "Donuts taste best around the hole, after all!"

"Huh? Where'd that come from!?" Personally, Hamuko felt Yukari had more important things to worry about than the case of the mysterious donut from nowhere, but didn't say anything.

"You mean where do donuts come from? They're born from love. Love meets dough, and...!"

"Aigis, don't take any explanations she gives too seriously," Hamuko stated. "If anything she says goes against what you know, come to me and I'll sort it out." She had enough trouble dealing with Theo's misconceptions, she didn't need anybody corrupting her robot, too.

"Understood."

"By the way, Zen-kun? It was Zen-kun, right? What was it you were saying about a labyrinth? Are there... you know...?"

"Inside is a complex structure with many monsters. Given that most of them carry masks, they fit the description of what you call 'Shadows'."

"What did you two do about them?" Yukari asked. "You can't get out, you have no memories, and on top of that, there are Shadows here..."

"I was here with Zen."

"That's not what I meant."

"I ate donuts, had takoyaki, and licked ice cream cones." Well, good to know they wouldn't starve, at least. Not that she'd want to live off of festival food, but it was something.

"...That's all?"

"Corn dogs are delicious too!" Rei proclaimed, pulling out a corn dog.

"I don't think we have any choice but to look around inside," Fuuka stated. Rei's cheerful attitude immediately dissipated.

"...We're going in?"

"Rei, you want to leave this place, right? Don't worry, I'll protect you."

"First, we need to put together a team," Mitsuru pointed out. "Yuki, you should decide who'll be participating in battle."

"I'm going. Shinji, you better come too."

"So it's up to you now?"

"I was going to bring the two of you along, anyway," Hamuko shrugged. "And... Mitsuru-senpai. You can help me keep them in line, right? Zen-kun and Rei-chan can come along, too... wait, what year are you two in? You seem younger than us, but..."

"What year...? I don't know."

"Let's assume for the moment that they are first years," Mitsuru decided. "Personally, I'm more interested in seeing how they fight against monsters."

"And I'll back you all up from here," Fuuka finished. "Be careful, all of you!"

* * *

 

 

The first thing that came to Hamuko's mind when she entered the Labyrinth was that it looked like some demented carnival stall. Fitting, given what the rest of the school looked like.

"Wh-what is this place...?"

"Careful! I do sense Shadows in there!" Fuuka's telepathic voice, same as always, echoed in their heads.

"The world of a children's book, huh...? Seems more like the perfect place to run into something."

At the very back of the group, Rei was glancing at the floor. Zen turned to her. "Rei, there's no need to be scared." She nodded, but didn't say anything.

The six of them took their first steps through the Labyrinth, arriving at an odd door. "It looks like a piano," Hamuko commented. "I wonder..." She reached forward, but before she could press any keys, they split apart to reveal the way forward. "...Or maybe not."

Her friends walked past her through the door, with the exception of Shinjiro. "Oh, by the way..." He pulled something out of his pocket, before handing it to Hamuko. "Your friend in blue gave this to me earlier. Said it was for you." It was a vial of the medicine she usually brought to Tartarus.

"...You know, with the way you fight, you really should carry this," She pointed out. "I can afford to hang back and just use magic, but you'll be right in the thick of it. You need to take care of yourself."

"No, I really-"

"Hey, Shinji! Hamuko! Hurry up!"

Hamuko shook her head. "Think of it this way- you can actually get Akihiko-senpai to hold still for a moment without resorting to freezing the area around his feet. Now come on, they're leaving without us!"

* * *

 

 

The first Shadows the group encountered were a group of large white balls with mouths. "...This is a new one," Hamuko commented. "Senpai, you ever seen one like this?" She wasn't actually sure who she was asking, but it was Shinjiro who answered.

"Never seen one. Aki?"

"No, this is definitely new."

"Right. Fuuka-chan, how long will it take you to scan?"

"They're weak enough that it shouldn't matter!" Their navigator answered. Hamuko shrugged.

"Well, there we go. Have fun!" She knew it was probably wrong to encourage Akihiko like that, but it would probably be fine. At least until the ice attacks started flying five seconds later. "...I guess I should have expected that. Let's help out, Orpheus!" Upon hearing the name of the Persona she was using, Mitsuru and Akihiko turned back to her.

"That one?" Mitsuru asked.

"Can't I use my true Persona every now and then?" She pointed out. "I mean, if you were a Wild Card, you'd still use Penthesilea, right?"

"You haven't used Orpheus for anything but musical accompaniment since spring." Okay, that was a good point.

"You try keeping track of over a hundred, see how many you use more than once. Agi!" She cut back to the fight, watching one of the Shadows go up in flames, leaving nothing but a tongue behind. "...Huh. Fire weakness."

* * *

 

 

The expedition stopped several rooms later when Fuuka contacted them. "I've scanned ahead, and there are several floors to go. There's a long way left on this floor, as well..."

"That much, huh? Shouldn't we go back for now?" Hamuko considered protesting, but then remembered that they had left a dog, a robot, an eleven-year-old, Theo and his sister, and Junpei at the entrance with only Yukari in the way of responsibility.

"That... that's a good idea, Shinjiro-senpai. Unless one of you would like to object?"

"Yeah, we should try to keep up our strength as much as possible," Akihiko agreed. Mitsuru paused.

"But... No, you're all right. Let's head back for the time being." No sooner had she said that then another group of Shadows appeared.

"Oh, I remember that one!" Hamuko cheered upon seeing the familiar blob. "Mitsuru-senpai, you want to take that one? And Akihiko-senpai and I can knock down the ones in back!"

"Are you saying...?"

"That's the plan! Come on, Orpheus!"

"Penthesilea!"

"Polydeuces!" Five seconds later, the Shadows were all lying on the ground.

"Zen-kun, Rei-chan, have you ever done this before?" Hamuko asked.

"No... what is it?" Rei replied. She just grinned.

"On the count of three, everyone. One... two... three!"

It was good to be the boss.

* * *

 

 

"Welcome back, everyone," Fuuka greeted the active team once they'd returned. "I searched ahead and picked up on a unique reading farther into the Labyrinth. I think it might be a giant Shadow."

"Normal giant, or full moon giant?" Hamuko asked, just to be sure. "Because there's a very noticeable difference between the two."

"Neither. It's more like something all its own. It seems very powerful, as well."

"That's what I'm talking about."

"I had a feeling that would be the case..." Mitsuru stated. "If so, we must be fully prepared."

"I mean, I've got all the stuff I was going to take into Tartarus," Hamuko pointed out, holding up her bag. "Plus a few other things... books... MP3 charger... clothes..."

"Don't you dare," Shinjiro warned her. "We have enough problems already without you shoving us into all those outfits."

"Fine... Can I still wear them myself?"

"If you can find someplace private to change, sure."

"Hey, Rei-chan, where's the locker room?"

"Yuki. Focus." Mitsuru shook her head. "It's like I'm surrounded by children... Your bag may be helpful, but what happens when we run out of medicine?"

"I'm assuming that we all still have Dia," She admitted. "And we haven't been given a time limit or anything- we're allowed to take more than an hour to catch our breaths."

"If we are forced to rely on magic to survive, I predict that we will face heavy odds," Aigis pointed out.

"I never said it was a good plan."

"Um... there's a place I know... you can probably find medicine there," Rei spoke up.

"Better than nothing. Could you take us there?"

"Let's all go there together! And we can swing by the donut shop on our way!"

* * *

 

 

Rei led them to a set of doors, opening them with ease. "Here we are!" Immediately, every biological member of SEES that had ever attended Gekkoukan shuddered.

"We should not have gotten Elizabeth and Theo," Hamuko stated as clearly as she could. "This was a terrible idea."

"It's just a nurse's office," Shinjiro pointed out, sounding like he was trying to convince himself.

"This is slightly disappointing," Aigis said, clearly not catching on to her teammates' near-universal case of existential dread.

"With more time, I could make some adjustments for comfort, but it'll have to do," Elizabeth decided. "I will set things up so you can rest here, while Theo will prepare the more portable medications you may require... for a suitable price, of course. You should come here whenever you return from the Labyrinth."

"You're making us pay?" Junpei asked.

"Why of course. That is how a contract works, after all," Theo stated. "It pains me to do so-"

"Liar..." Hamuko muttered.

"I am afraid, Hamuko-sama, that I do not quite understand what you are talking about."

"Mitsuru-senpai? Remember when you asked me why we were over budget? It's all the Velvet Room's fault. Personas are expensive."

"...I see." The air was noticeably chilled, but she figured Mitsuru wasn't actually going to attack them, if only due to having already been told about the siblings' aptitude for Almighty spells.

"Still, bound to cheat us out of our money or not, this will be helpful. Thanks, Theo! And... Elizabeth too, I guess." Honestly, something about the older sibling scared her more than Theo's Megidolaon had. Probably because Theo was too meek to frivolously use that power.

"So, do those two know anything about medicine?" Yukari asked as they left.

"Probably not," Hamuko admitted. "Guys, you still have Dia, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Great. Let's use that, then." For the sakes of both their health, and her wallet. "Now, on to more important matters."

"What do you mean?" Aigis asked.

"Well, you know how, in Tartarus, we keep getting turned around on ourselves? This Labyrinth, from what I can see, doesn't move."

"That is rather helpful," Fuuka admitted. "But I'm not sure where you're going with this." In response, she simply pulled out a pack of map paper, before calling out to the youngest human in the group.

"Hey, Ken! How good are you at drawing!?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And that is how Ken became the group cartographer, in an attempt by Hamuko to keep the eleven-year-old off the front lines.
> 
> Now, let's be entirely honest, Elizabeth is terrifying. Mostly due to her lack of a sense of restraint.
> 
> I cut out the craft shop because everyone already has weapons and armor on them. Maybe if it was the P4 side, but given the quality of the golf clubs Souji has access to...
> 
> Hamuko's bag has everything. And the next story opens with her owning nothing but the things she's wearing, her Evoker, and a naginata. How the mighty have fallen...


	3. Team Effort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko returns to the Labyrinth, this time with more friends. After all, nothing like the threat of numbers to scare off enemy Shadows!
> 
> On the other hand, maybe bringing a smaller group would have been easier on her sanity...

The best part about being in a place like this, Hamuko decided, was that you could plug your stuff in in the corner and nobody would think twice about it. Actually, so long as none of her friends came around, nobody would think twice about anything strange that happened around her.

Something which the small boy next to her was taking full advantage of. “Pharos, I don’t know if you can get sick, but you probably shouldn’t be eating that much takoyaki at once.” She wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there, but she’d given up on trying to figure out how Pharos did anything a long time ago.

“But your new friend eats in these quantities,” He pointed out, turning to her with those unnaturally bright eyes.

“And that’s Rei-chan’s decision. She’s in high school, she’s old enough to make them for herself, while you… how old are you, anyway?” It came to mind that maybe she should have asked that sooner.

“I… how old…?” He tilted his head to the side, before admitting, “I’m not really sure.”

“Well, you seem to be younger than Ken-kun, at least,” Hamuko decided. “You’re still a kid, either way, and you really shouldn’t be stuffing yourself with this much festival food.”

Pharos glanced back at his food. Hamuko was regretting giving him access to her money, but Shadows were such a good source of it that it really didn’t matter- or, at least, that was what she was planning on telling Mitsuru if she ever found out.

“What if I shared it?” He knew her far too well.

“Come on, then, hand it over!”

* * *

  
  


After Pharos had vanished back to… wherever he normally disappeared to… Hamuko decided to meet back up with the others so they could go back into the Labyrinth.

“Oh, Leader!” Fuuka was the first to notice her presence, of course. “Are you going back inside?”

“That’s the plan,” She replied, picking up her naginata from where she’d left it near the entrance. Probably not the most responsible of ideas, but it wasn’t like there was anyone who would steal it, and while she could probably trust Theo to take care of it, she did not hold his sister in anywhere near the same regard.

“So, who’s going in this time?” Yukari asked. Hamuko paused to think about what she was going to say.

“I think… besides Fuuka-chan… we should all go. I mean, Shadows don’t leave the Labyrinth, right?”

“The monsters have never entered the main part of the school,” Zen responded.

“Right. And if it’s safe outside the Labyrinth, why leave a guard? Worst case scenario, she could always run to the nurse’s office.” They all paused for a moment to think about what Theodore and Elizabeth would do to any Shadows that were foolish enough to approach them.

“But is that safest for us?” Mitsuru pointed out. “We’ve never all fought at the same time before.”

“So now’s a good time to learn!” They were going to have to eventually, right? Might as well do it someplace where they had more than an hour to get everything together. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll take full responsibility!”

“Wow, Hamu-tan’s actually serious about this,” Junpei commented. Mitsuru and Hamuko ignored him.

“What made you decide this?”

“Simple logic. Ken-kun’s drawing the map, so he has to come along. Akihiko-senpai and Shinjiro-senpai work best together, Zen-kun and Rei-chan need the Labyrinth to be explored more than anyone, and you know Aigis doesn’t like to leave my side. There’s not a lot of room for versatility here, so why not?”

“And this is entirely to do with your reasoning?”

“...I also don’t want to leave anyone alone with Elizabeth. She scares me,” Hamuko admitted.

“Well, let’s get into the Labyrinth, shall we?” Yukari started, already heading through the door, followed closely by everyone except for a terrified Fuuka.

Hamuko seriously hoped that Elizabeth never heard of this.

* * *

  
  


“Hmm… This seems like a very extensive stand,” Fuuka’s voice echoed around the group as they walked through the Labyrinth. “It’s structure looks complex… It’s quite different from Tartarus. I can’t get anything about the topography. Sorry...”

“Maybe because it’s static?” Hamuko suggested. “It’s okay, that’s what we have Ken-kun for!”

“I suppose… but you should be careful. It seems there are a number of extremely strong Shadows. They’re not like anything we’ve seen before, so they should use a separate name. Um...”

“Fysis Oikein Eidolon,” Zen suggested. Everyone turned to him.

“What?” Mitsuru asked.

“Fysis Oikein Eidolon,” He repeated.

“Saying it twice doesn’t help! Like, what is that supposed to mean!?”

“An idol that lives by instincts…” Hamuko muttered. “That… does describe Shadows pretty well, actually.”

“You can understand that?” Junpei asked. “Wow, Hamu-tan, you really are just full of surprises.”

“You’ve known me for how long?” She pointed out. “You should know this by now. And, well… I don’t really know where that came from, myself. But it fits, doesn’t it?”

“That it does,” Mitsuru agreed. “We’ll call them FOEs for short.”

“FOE? Okay,” Hamuko got the feeling that Fuuka was nodding from her spot beside the Labyrinth entrance. “About these FOEs… I’m not sure you’ll be able to beat them.” Right. Treat like the Reaper. Got it. “You should be able to recognize them easily- they’ll be much larger than ordinary Shadows.”

“You’re telling us to run from them!?”

“Putting ourselves in unnecessary danger would be reckless. Discretion is the better part of valor. If you find an FOE, take pains not to fight it, understood?”

“Think of it like the Reaper,” Hamuko suggested. “We know it’s there, but we try to avoid fighting it because we already know how it’ll end.” Maybe if she used Thanatos… no, not even then. Besides, what was the use of a Persona when all she could do with it was point it at the enemy and hope for the best?

“R-Right… that makes sense.” Good. He could see reason, after all.

* * *

  
  


All things considered, Hamuko didn’t think the Labyrinth was all that different from Tartarus, at least in the ways that mattered. Shadows showed up, they were quickly defeated, and the team went on.

“Hey, what’s that?” Ken asked, pointing to a pair of objects on the floor. Hamuko’s first response would be to say that they were Personas, but they only appeared like that in the Velvet Room or Shuffle Time.

“They’re blank…” She noted, but still picked them up. “Maybe Theo knows what to do with them. I’ll hold on to them for now.”

“Hmm… This wall…” They heard Mitsuru talking with Akihiko up ahead.

“Is this… a clock?”

“Is it a sign of some sort…? Or is there some kind of mechanism to it?” They both looked up as Zen stepped forward.

“May I…?” He asked, and they both moved away. “Hmm…. Maybe…” He reached forward, something clicked, and the clock swung to the side, revealing a hole in the wall large enough for a person to crawl through. Emphasis on the singular.

Hamuko glanced around at her eleven-person party. “This is going to take a while…”

* * *

  
  


She’d known they were going to encounter powerful enemies. She knew there were a large number of them. And yet, as she peered from behind a door with Junpei, Hamuko couldn’t help but think she was not prepared for today.

“Holy crap, what is that!?”

“If I was the type to place bets, I’d say that’s an FOE,” She replied. “It certainly doesn’t look like a normal Shadow. No mask, for one thing.” Honestly, she’d say it looked like a mix between a playing card and a jester. Which would probably be less terrifying if she didn’t know the Velvet attendants, and therefore realize that power could come in the strangest of packages.

“You are correct,” Zen stated, joining them. “That is an FOE.”

“You’d all best be careful!” Fuuka warned them. “That means you, Akihiko-senpai!”

“They know you well,” Shinjiro commented. Fed up with the crowding, Hamuko decided to actually go through the door.

“That FOE is behaving suspiciously,” Aigis declared. “Not only is it not readying itself for battle, it is showing no interest in us.”

“Are you complaining?” Hamuko asked. “I mean, if the Reaper stopped chasing us, I’d throw a party. With Shinjiro-senpai cooking, of course.”

“Don’t drag me into this.”

“Just take the compliment…” She muttered. “Besides, who else would do it? Fuuka-chan?”

“Don’t even joke about that…”

“Scan complete!” Fuuka announced. “The FOE seems to only be interested in patrolling a set area. Stay away from there, and you should be fine!”

“The pond, right?” Yukari checked.

“That’s what it looks like,” Ken agreed. “Hey, Hamuko-san, the marker you gave me…” Without thinking, she fished out a replacement. “Oh, thanks!”

“I don’t think we can avoid the pond entirely…” Hamuko started. “But it seems to only be interested in moving in one direction. We just have to stay behind it, and we’ll be fine!”

“...You’re sure?” Rei asked.

“Positive. It’s almost come back around again… now!”

* * *

  
  


“Huh? Look over there!” Hamuko turned, hoping that Ken hadn’t seen another FOE. The last one was bad enough, because it turned out that you couldn’t just take eleven people and expect them to both understand the meaning of stealth and be able to carry it out. “Aren’t those stairs? It looks like they lead down…”

“I’m detecting Shadows on the lower floors as well!” Fuuka reported. “This place seems to consist of several floors going downward. In a sense, it’s a reverse Tartarus.”

“If that’s the case, we should try and get as far down as we can,” Mitsuru decided.

“Not that we can get to those stairs from here,” Shinjiro pointed out. “I’m not sure what’s in that lake, but I don’t think we want to touch it.”

Koromaru sniffed the lake, before barking. “Koromaru-san says that it smells a bit like paint,” Aigis declared. “However, I agree that we should not try and swim through it.”

“Yeah, you never know with Shadows,” Hamuko agreed. “And even if it weren’t, I don’t think I want this stuff filling my bag. So, that settled…” She carelessly flung a hand at the door next to her, which opened to reveal a large number of Shadows. “...In my defense… yeah… I did not think this through, did I? Orpheus…” It probably said something about her mental state that she could use her Evoker that casually.

And she really wished that she hadn’t neglected her original Persona so much because, while she was using plain Agi attacks, everyone else was fighting on a higher level.

“Yuki, you need to stay focused,” Mitsuru scolded, as the next wave of Shadows was encased in ice.

“Don’t worry, Mitsuru-senpai. I’m just warming up!”

Junpei sighed. “Dude, that was bad. Never use that one again.”

“You’ve used the exact same joke before!”

“Shouldn’t that say something about just how bad it was?” Yukari pointed out.

“...Shut up,” Hamuko muttered, picking up a few more odd blank cards. “Come on, let’s get moving. We know where the stairs are now, we just have to find a way to them.”

“Aren’t you getting tired?”

“Death by Shadows is preferable to death by Velvet Room.” Nobody tried to argue with that.

* * *

  
  


“So, we’re all under agreement to never let Junpei name anything again?”

“Come on, Hamu-tan, it’s not that bad!”

“You can’t even make a three-letter acronym!”

Everyone else decided not to get involved.

* * *

  
  


“Akihiko-senpai, what have we learned today?”

“Guard my right side better?”

“Don’t jump through random passages! Shinjiro-senpai, back me up here!”

“Why’s she asking him for help and not Mitsuru-senpai?” Junpei asked. Yukari turned to him.

“You mean, besides her painfully obvious crush?” The girl in pink promptly stepped aside before the Agi spell detonated. “...She has good hearing.”

“Right… so, remind me again where the bet stands?”

“Why do you care? You lost it last week!” Hamuko decided to stop listening to her friends’ conversation, if only so she wasn’t tempted to actually kill one of them.

* * *

  
  


“No.”

“Hamu-tan, I didn’t-”

“We are not putting Ken-kun in the magic box. What would we even do with two of him?”

“Well, we could have one map and the other fight,” Fuuka suggested.

“Don’t encourage him!” Hamuko snapped. “Now, Junpei, put the kid down.”

“...I wouldn’t mind there being two of me.”

“Ken-kun!”

* * *

  
  


When they got close to the stairs, the map that Ken was making started to glow. “What the-!?”

“I’m sensing something near you!” Fuuka called in. “It feels like a strong source of energy.”

Hamuko paused. “Hey, Koro-chan… can you sniff anything out around here?”

“Arf!” Koromaru barked an affirmative and led them over to what looked like a treasure chest, only there was a map where the lock was supposed to be.

“...Making Ken-kun map was clearly the best idea I’ve ever had,” She declared. As they approached, the box opened, revealing a similarly glowing stone inside. When Hamuko picked it up, the scratch on her hand from a lucky shot by a table Shadow vanished. “Okay, we’re keeping this.”

“Shouldn’t we be going down now?” Zen pointed out.

“We should,” Hamuko agreed, and they descended the stairs to see something that looked less like the festival stand it was and more like a garden. “...So, are floors like blocks or something?”

“Perhaps,” Mitsuru agreed. “Either way, we should assume that this floor won’t be as easy as the last one.” Not that it wouldn’t be easy, with all of them working together. But it would be less so.

“Rei, how are you feeling?” Zen asked. She nodded.

“Mm-hm! There’s so many people with me, and you too, Zen. I’m scared, but I’ll be okay.”

“I am glad to hear that,” Aigis stated.

“I’ve… always been drawn to this place,” Rei admitted. “But I was too scared to explore it. But with everyone helping me, I’m okay with coming in. It’s a lot of fun! Thank you very much!” Next to her, Zen glanced away. “...Zen? What’s wrong? Does it hurt somewhere?”

“No… I don’t really understand.” He paused, and shook his head. “Rei… Will you… stay by my side?”

“Mm-hm! Of course!” Okay, that was just adorable.

“It feels like they’re in their own world…” Ken commented.

“You think so? Chidorita and I can be kinda like that too, I guess. And, of course, we have-” Junpei cut himself off when Hamuko glared at him. Clearly, telling him about her crush had been a terrible decision. “...Anyway, I need to get out of here as fast as I can, for her sake, too!”

“I hope we can get Rei-chan and Zen-kun out of here quickly, too.”

“Even Koromaru’s excited,” Yukari noted.

“Remember, getting out of here has always been the priority,” Mitsuru pointed out.

“Oh… right.” The conversation then, for the most part, turned to how Zen and Rei could fight without Personas.

For the most part. “Hey, are you feeling okay?”

Hamuko nodded. “I’m fine. Honestly, Shinjiro-senpai, you should worry more about yourself. Or Akihiko-senpai. I swear, I don’t know what he’d do without us…” She shook her head, trying not to look too closely at anyone.

“Really? You’ve been acting odd this whole time.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“That Persona you’ve been using… Mitsuru said you hadn’t used it since spring?”

“Not for battle,” Hamuko amended. “Her music skills are great, though! And why shouldn’t I use this Persona? It’s me, after all.”

“Hamuko.” And he was using her name, which meant he was serious about this. “Why are you only using one Persona?”

“That… I…” Right. “Well… um… I sort of… lost all the Personas that weren’t originally mine when we first arrived here?” It came out more like a question, really, and at this point she was seriously considering channeling the mind state Thanatos brought. Of all the people to call her out on it…

“This experience will be good research material… if we ever get home, that is.”

“Speaking of abnormalities… Mitsuru, we need to head back.”

“What are you talking about, Shinjiro?”

“Ask her. She’s the one who apparently lost all her Personas.”

“Yuki? Is this true?”

“...I still have Orpheus?” She weakly suggested. In the back of her mind, she could swear she heard Pharos laughing at her, somehow. “And… and these!” Casting about for anything, she pulled a set of five cards out of her pocket.

“Blank cards…?” Shinjiro shook his head. “Either way, we’re going back so you can talk to those blue people about this.” Right. Something she should have done earlier, really.

“Yes… if she doesn’t have Personas to shift between, it could be a drastic setback in battle.” And Mitsuru’s disapproving gaze… “Which is why you should have informed us of this earlier.”

“...Sorry.” At this point, Hamuko had given up on anything but staring at the floor. It was a very nice floor, checked purple and yellow. “Let’s just… head back…”

Hopefully, Elizabeth wouldn’t have brewed up something lethal just yet. Or maybe she could hide behind Theodore for the next few hours, that would be nice...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's really not a lot of interesting things on the first floor, are there? Honestly, I could probably put every floor into its own thing if I ignored quests and strolls... but those are hilarious...
> 
> Yes, Pharos will be showing up on occasion. Mostly at the worst possible moment, because right now, he lives to torment Hamuko, and he can't exactly disturb her sleep right now.
> 
> If anyone's curious, the one who currently stands to win the bet is Akihiko. (Though, he has a bit of an unfair advantage- he said "Before my next birthday", and they're currently frozen in time.) The one deemed most likely to win, however, is Ken, with "Never". (He has a point, though. Hamuko just does not know how to flirt.)


	4. The Wild Card

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko asks Theo why her powers are acting up, and gets a fair bit more information than she bargained for.

“Theo? Can I talk to you for a bit?” Hamuko asked, keeping her hands in her pockets and her eyes aimed at the ground.

“Why, of course, Hamuko-sama. Whatever you need.”

“Great. Let’s go to the Velvet Room, then. It’s- it’s about my powers.” Everyone else was already waiting for her in the Room, if only to make sure she didn’t run into the Labyrinth alone. She would have liked to protest, but her track record spoke against her, and she knew it.

When they arrived, the others were gathered in front of the doors, Akihiko poking at the locks. “Akihiko-senpai, just because you resist electricity, that doesn’t mean you should be messing with it,” Hamuko stated, walking up to them.

“I was just trying to figure out what they were…”

“I’m sure it will reveal itself to us eventually,” Theo stated. “After all, nothing meaningless happens here.”

“Zen, Rei… do you know anything about these doors?” Mitsuru asked.

“No.” Rei’s reply was immediate. Hamuko supposed they should have expected it- after all, Zen and Rei had never been to the Velvet Room before. Zen looked unsure, but still spoke up.

“I’m not sure… but they’re probably connected to where you come from.”

“Does that mean these are the way out? How can you be sure?”

“This room itself didn’t exist until you came. To me, this is your place… and, therefore, those are your doors… But that’s just a feeling I have. There’s no evidence for it. ...Forget what I just said.”

“We’ll just have to leave them be for now,” Mitsuru decided. “Besides, that isn’t exactly why we’re here.”

“R-right.” Hamuko had been trying to ignore it, but… “Theo, since I got here, all the Personas that I’ve found or fused earlier have all disappeared. And… that shouldn’t happen, should it? Persona is a mental power, and I’ve followed all the terms of my contract… so what happened to my powers?”

“Ah… that is a good question. And an unprecedented one. Even if a Wild Card were to break their contract, the Personas on hand would still remain. So why indeed would you only have the powers truly born from your heart?”

“That is what we wish to ask,” Aigis pointed out.

“Ai-chan, you’re starting to talk like these people.” Junpei sounded a bit panicked. Hamuko was sure that would stop when he remembered that the way someone talked and their power levels weren’t actually connected.

“Well, I suppose we should start investigating this matter,” Theodore decided. “Hamuko-sama, if you would sit down here…” He ushered her to the sofa, and she obeyed without complaint. “And… if you would, as well.”

“Fine…” Shinjiro muttered, and Hamuko suddenly felt the intense urge to look literally anywhere else. No, she was not dealing with this today. But, of course, ignoring Theo didn’t seem to be a good idea, so she instead focused on staring straight ahead and pretending that the presence next to her didn’t exist.

Theodore pulled out a deck of blue cards. “These are tarot cards. They are used to peer into your fates…” With a sweep of his hand, twenty-four cards spread out onto the table. He then reached out and turned over the card directly in front of Hamuko.

“Number thirteen… the Death card. Not entirely unexpected, but not normal, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am not sure,” Theo started. “The fact is, she naturally bears this Arcana, so there was always a chance of me drawing it… But what is more important, is that it is her secondary Arcana. Normally, two cards would have been before her, but there was only one… and it was not the Fool.”

“Fool…? Uh, you mean an idiot?” Junpei asked.

“Actually, you’ll find that ‘idiot’ suits Magician better, Junpei!” Hamuko responded. “Theo’s master once described the Fool to me as the number zero…. empty, but with infinite Potential.” They all heard the emphasis there. “It’s the Arcana of the Wild Card.”

“Hamuko-sama is correct. Much like the card, she can freely wield infinite Personas… while others may awaken to multiple Personas, alongside each other or sequentially, she is the only ‘true’ Wild Card currently active in your world.”

“So, what changed?” Shinjiro asked.

“Perhaps it is something to do with this place, where time has no meaning. In a place like this… who is to say it knows whether she has yet signed her contract… or that any of you have not?”

“Theo, I think you need to get to the point,” She stated.

“Very well. You have noticed the difference between a Persona that naturally comes from your heart and one obtained due to the contract, yes? Here, that difference has become insurmountable, locking those ‘unnatural’ Personas away from your main self. In a sense, you cannot fully shift away from your true self while you are here.”

“So… she cannot change her Persona? That could have serious consequences for us in combat…”

“No, her power of the Wild Card has not been lost. It truly represents infinite possibilities… though I had never imagined this to be among them.”

“What do you mean?” Yukari asked.

“Besides her… limited selection of Social Personas…” Oh, good, he knew better than to mention Thanatos. “It seems that she could, if she had access to those other Personas, summon one of them as well.”

“So, like a Fusion Raid?” She checked.

“More or less, though you aren’t limited to a single spell. This second Persona, besides being unable to naturally grant its elemental capabilities, will not be able to draw power from your bonds the way they would normally, thus preventing it from living up to its full potential… nor can it assist in giving your bonds power.”

“Bonds?” Ken asked. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain later,” Hamuko replied. “Just… not to Zen and Rei. It’ll be hard enough with people I actually know… And it doesn’t apply to them, anyway.” The Fool Social Link hadn’t even ranked up when they joined.

“So… she can summon two Personas at the same time?” Fuuka checked.

“Correct. If she uses Orpheus as her ‘Social Persona’, then the other Persona can be considered a ‘sub-Persona’, as it takes a secondary role to her Orpheus.”

“Hamu-tan’s powers are pretty crazy…”

“And perhaps it’s not just her,” Theo stated, spreading the cards once again, this time focusing on the three directly in front of Shinjiro. “In terms of Arcana, people can be rather complex, but even then, only one or two tend to express themselves at a time.” On one side, the Hierophant, which everyone was expecting. On another, the Moon, which only Theo and Hamuko realized that they would see. And in the center…

“The Fool… as I suspected.”

“What, me? What are you talking about?”

“And it’s more than just you… now that I look at it, all of you, aside from Zen and Rei, are marked by a secondary- or sometimes tertiary- Fool Arcana.”

“...You know, that really shouldn’t surprise me,” Hamuko commented. And it didn’t, not really, when it was the admittedly-shaky bond between all of them that gave Orpheus her power.

“What do you mean?”

“It’ll be in the explanation.” And that was all she would say at the moment.

“Of course, in a way, your powers are reversed from hers… while her Social Persona is her ‘main’, which she draws strength from, you all will gain your strengths from the Personas you usually use in combat, with your Social Personas being interchangeable… at least, in the case where there is something to change from.” So, they were closer to her normal powers. She suspected the powers would be less reversed had she gotten into the habit of using her true Personas, even if all she could do with Thanatos was shout and point.

“Why would there be?” Akihiko asked.

“Akihiko-senpai, you’re one of four people in this room who shouldn’t be asking that question,” Hamuko stated, “The other three being myself, Aigis, and Shinjiro-senpai. We all have a secondary Arcana- mine is the Death, Aigis has the Aeon, yours is the Star, and Shinjiro-senpai has the Moon.”

“That is correct. I believe you can call them ‘Social Arcana’ to go with the Social Personas that would be born if you nurtured them to their full potential- not that either of you have done so, but it is a distinct possibility. In the case that occurs, I am unsure as to what will happen here, but I believe that they would join the Personas that you currently wield as potential ‘mains’.”

“That makes the most sense,” Hamuko admitted. And it was probably true- it explained Thanatos, anyway.

“So, they could have two of their own Personas...?” Ken asked. “That’s a bit hard to believe…”

“It’s only if they choose to awaken them,” Theo pointed out. “And without the help of a contract, it would likely be a long and difficult process. One must either have the services of the Velvet Room, a fragmented mind, or complete assurance of their own identity, in order to wield multiple Personas, and only the first and last ones can be done safely.”

“...I think I’ll just stick with what I’ve got,” Shinjiro decided.

“Your loss,” Akihiko shrugged.

“Akihiko-senpai, please don’t try to embark on a journey of self-discovery just yet. We need to focus on getting out of here first.”

Meanwhile, Theo had started pacing. “Still, why this irregularity? Even in a place separate from time such as this, only Hamuko-sama should have experienced this abnormality. It’s as though something is strengthening the power of the Fool… As though her powers are mixing with those of another… Perhaps one of the doors...”

“Another with the Wild Card ability?” Aigis asked. Theo shook his head.

“It’s nothing. Just a feeling.”

“On another note,” Mitsuru started, changing the subject, “How is it that Zen and Rei have no Personas? Isn’t having one necessary to fight the Shadows?”

“I suspect that the answer to that is intertwined with the mystery of this place. We are currently someplace deep within the collective unconscious… the natural habitat of Shadows, and a place where living humans do not venture. If one did, they would naturally unite with a Shadow, either by gaining control of it, or being consumed…”

“So, Zen-kun and Rei-chan are basically Shadows…!?”

“I’ve never heard of a Shadow that could think, though…!” Hamuko wondered what Mitsuru’s reaction to Pharos would be. After all, ‘some sort of Shadow’ was one of her top three guesses for what her odd friend was, the other two being ‘ghost’ and ‘unusually persistent hallucination’.

“It’s just a hypothesis, of course.”

“But… Well, we have no other theories that can explain it for now.”

“Anyway, back to the topic of Hamuko-sama’s abilities… would you happen to have found any Persona cards here?”

“Persona cards?”

“Oh, right here.” She pulled the blank cards out of her pocket. “There’s nothing on them, though… not even an Arcana.”

“I see… It appears that these cards do not yet have a fate laid out in front of them… while all of you have Personas unique to yourselves, you now have access to other Personas as well, though you need a starting point. Hamuko-sama…” And she knew what to do. Theo raised the cards in front of her, and possibilities immediately started to flicker on them.

“So, you guys know those times I’d stare at nothing after battle?” She asked conversationally. “Yeah, this is what I was doing. It’s called Shuffle Time. Anyway… I think I’ll do this.” She reached forward as quickly as she could, five times. “...Not perfect, but it’ll do. Okay, who wants first pick of the new Personas!?”

* * *

  


“I’m not a hallucination, you know,” Pharos stated, sitting next to Hamuko at a table in the cafeteria.

“That’s exactly what a hallucination would say,” She responded without thinking. “And should you be here? The others will get here soon, and I don’t know if they’ll be able to see you or not.”

“If I’m a hallucination, does it matter?” She tried glaring at him, but for some reason, she couldn’t channel Thanatos as effectively as she normally did.

“Pharos, I’m already explaining Social Links to them. I don’t want to have to explain you as well.”

“I could help you explain Social Links!”

“That sounds like a terrible idea. No. Look, maybe I’ll introduce you later. To one person at a time.”

“Starting with that one senpai of yours?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” She lied, wondering just how he’d been able to pick up on it. He’d never even met Shinjiro!

“Are you okay? You look rather red…”

“I’m. Fine.” And the worst part was, at this point, she was pretty sure the boy wasn’t a hallucination. She was stuck with him.

 _(Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Death Arcana…)_ And, to top it all off, the Social Link voices. Because today clearly hadn’t been trying enough, she needed to deal with the voices in her head that gave her a headache every time she heard them.

No, this just wasn’t her day.

* * *

  


“So, would you believe that I have powers because I like you people?” That was not what she had been meaning to say. She’d been meaning to channel Thanatos, emulate Theo, and act as professionally as she possibly could while staying as composed as possible.

“That… doesn’t exactly answer our questions,” Yukari pointed out.

“I’m trying! So… when I first got Orpheus, when I passed out for a week? My mind was in the Velvet Room that whole time, and Theo’s master, Igor, told me a bit about Personas, and how my powers interacted with them, sort of. He was really kind of vague about it… Honestly, it only started to make sense to me back in June...” Which was probably not a good sign, really.

“Start with the basics,” Mitsuru suggested.

“Okay, so… you know how Theo was talking about Arcana earlier? Well, if I use a Persona of an Arcana, people with the same ‘Social Arcana’ are easier to get along with. And, in turn, that makes Personas of that Arcana more powerful, so it’s sort of self-perpetuating? I never really looked into the mechanics of it, I just… shrugged and went along with it.” Which, in hindsight, seemed like a really bad idea.

“You were given magical friendship powers, and you just… went along with it?”

“It never seemed to matter,” She admitted. “I mean, I probably wouldn’t be in so many clubs otherwise, but… well, I like people. And in searching for Social Links, I’ve made a lot of great friends, everyone here included. So there’s not really a problem.”

“I can think of a few,” Shinjiro stated. “Remind me again how many Arcana there are.”

“That I have access to? Twenty-two. The main deck, minus World and plus Aeon, though I have no clue where the links for Fortune and Judgement might be.”

“That’s a lot,” Yukari commented. “How do you have time for all that?”

“Well, you guys live in the same building as me, that helps,” Hamuko pointed out. “And I’ve actually completed a few links already, so I have a bit more time… or I would, if I weren’t still a part of the student council… and it helps that I don’t really get sick.”

“Yuki, would you like the list of times you have endangered yourself by insisting on fighting while ill?”

“...Okay, it helps that I’m stubborn. Happy now?”

“...I am not sure why you think that is much better. It’s still unhealthy.”

“But I don’t have time to sit around! Kamiki-san’s got a terminal illness, Maiko-chan’s moving away, I’m honestly scared Fuuka-chan will poison the whole cooking club if I’m not there, and I don’t even want to know what Theo would do if he left to wander our world unsupervised!” For a moment, they all paused to imagine Theodore loose in the human world.

“...Hamuko, has anyone ever told you you’re too nice?” Akihiko asked.

“Lots of times. Shinjiro-senpai says it once a week.”

“...Hamuko-san, if you’re having problems with finding time for everyone, I could try and make myself free on Tuesdays?”

“...Thanks, Ken-kun. That- that’ll help.” She wasn’t sure why she was worried. After all, if they didn’t care, why would they have followed her for so long?

_(Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana…)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people, for whatever reason, have various team members fall out with the local Wild Card when they learn about Social Links. I'm not sure why- personally, my first thought would be somewhere along the lines of 'where do they find all that time, that can't be healthy'. Because it's not.
> 
> In this world, part of the reason Aki left the country after the Answer was an attempt to gain a second Persona through a journey of self-discovery. As anyone who's seen him in Arena could tell you... it didn't work out. Honestly, it'd be more likely for Caesar to revert to Polydeuces.
> 
> Hamuko, when Death itself is calling you out on your crush, you have a problem. (Though, between Orpheus bestowing the quality of 'easily embarrassed' and Thanatos being Thanatos, it's hard to blame her.)


	5. Learn By Experience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second floor of the Labyrinth, despite looking very different from the first, is mostly the same after a bit.
> 
> Note that this does not mean boring.

Besides the occasional encounter with fish and bird-like Shadows, and a disproportionate amount of timepieces in the first room, Hamuko didn’t see how the second floor of the Labyrinth was that different from the first.

Actually, if anything, it was even easier, since everyone had more Personas to choose from, even if they were… weaker than she was used to. It was hard to go back from the likes of Chernobog and Titania to Pixie and Apsaras.

But no matter how easy it was, they’d eventually have to get tired. “It feels like we’ve been walking for hours,” Junpei groaned. “Can’t we take a quick break?” Given that, to head back, they’d have to walk all the way out of the Labyrinth again, this did not give Hamuko a lot of hope for the future.

Akihiko seeed to have the same idea. “What, you’re worn out already? Looks like you’re out of shape.”

“What? C’mon, it’s not just me! Rei-chan, Hamu-tan, back me up here!”

“Oh, yes! I’m starving!” Rei agreed. Hamuko just shook her head.

“Well, I don’t think the things around here are safe to eat… you know, Shadows, and all.”

“I suggest that we take a short break over here, in this appetite-stimulating area.”

“Taunting us with food we can’t eat? You’re cruel, Aigis…” But she couldn’t keep herself from smiling. It didn’t really matter to her either way- she wasn’t hungry. Which was odd, given that the last time she’d eaten had been the takoyaki she’d shared with Pharos… it was probably nothing.

Yukari nodded. “Yeah, it looks delicious, but… I don’t think you can eat these, either. They look like decorations.” As if prompted, Aigis reached up and plucked one of the hanging sweets.

“This gritty texture, the strong smell of ink… I hypothesize that this is one-hundred percent pulp!”

“Ah, pulp, huh?” Rei took the decoration from Aigis and bit into it. Hamuko sighed. There went what little remained of her appetite.... “Mm-hm, this pulp is sweet, with a mysterious texture to it…” She wondered if Rei would be willing to taste-test Fuuka’s cooking… no, that way lied madness. “...Bleah.”

“It’s paper! Paper!”

Mitsuru seemed focused on observing the world around her. “Hm… However realistic it looks, this is the world of a children’s story. Everything here is inorganic.”

“That’s probably a good thing. If these were real, I’d be breaking the scales in no time.”

“What are you talking about?” Hamuko asked. “With the amount of exercise we get, I don’t think being overweight is something we really need to worry about. ...And why would you consider eating something you found in a Shadow nest to begin with?”

“...Okay, that’s a good point…”

“Huh? Don’t you like sweets?” Hamuko exchanged glances with Yukari, and gestured her to go on.

“Well, it’s not that… It’s- not everyone can constantly eat without getting fat like you and Hamuko can.”

“Get fat… Zen, have I gotten fat!?”

“You haven’t changed,” He reassured her.

“Aw…”

“Is she… disappointed!?” Yukari groaned. “I envy this girl…”

“You won’t for long,” Hamuko remarked. “Something tells me that, by the time this is over, we’ll all be sick of festival food.”

“Is there anything you don’t like eating, Rei-san?” Ken asked. “Like bell peppers, or black coffee…”

“Um…” Rei counted on her hands for a few moments, before nodding. “I don’t like pulp.”

“Rei-san, that’s… not food…”

“And now you all know what I have to deal with…” Hamuko sighed. Aigis glanced at her.

“Theodore-san?”

“Theo.”

“I love every kind of food that has flavor!” Rei declared, pulling out even more food from nowhere. Hamuko paused, and decided that she still wasn’t as weird as Pharos. At least Rei didn’t teleport.

“That’s way too broad,” Shinjiro pointed out.

“You’ve got guts,” Akihiko decided. “Here, I’ll give you something.”

She sighed. “Akihiko-senpai… why did you have a protein bar with you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Rank seven Social Link or not… she swore she would never understand him.

“Thanks for the food!” Rei grinned, and bit in. “Mm… Ish delicious! What ish it?”

“In normal terms? Protein. According to Aki? Magic.”

“But it is!”

“Wow! Magic!?” Hamuko, at this point, was starting to wonder how she attracted all of these incredibly clueless people. Theo was understandable due to living outside reality, Aigis was a robot, Pharos was Pharos… but Rei?

“That’s right!” Akihiko stated, a teasing smile on his face. “And if you train hard, eventually, you’ll get to where you can beat a bear with your bare hands!”

“With your bare hands? Is this true…?” Zen asked.

“Nice going, Aki. They actually believed that.”

“Did I lie?” And there they went…

“You’re really going to snarf down protein until you’re fighting a bear with just your hands? You muscle-brained idiot...”

“I’m sorry, what did you just call me?” And… that was enough.

“Hey, Earth to Gemini!” Hamuko called, snapping her fingers between them, just to make sure they noticed. “Do we really have time for this?”

“But-” They started. She didn’t give them a chance to finish.

“Mitsuru-senpai? A little help?”

“Those two just turn into little kids when they’re together…” Junpei sighed. “You think they’ve always been like that?”

“How should I know?” Yukari replied. “Just let Hamuko and Mitsuru-senpai deal with them.” Hamuko, meanwhile, had noticed the dropping temperature and the crackling of static, and decided to make a safe distance.

“Leader.”

“What is it, Zen?”

“What really happens when you eat this pro… thing?” She paused.

“Well… some people think it tastes good? That’s all I can really think of…”

“Emphasis on ‘some’...” Yukari sighed. “I drank some to try and put on some muscle for archery club, but… Just don’t listen too closely to Akihiko-senpai.”

“I see… I understand.” There was a flash of blue, and they all turned to see Penthesilea blast Akihiko and Shinjiro with ice. “...Should we help them?”

Hamuko nodded. “...Just… maybe once they’re done.”

“How are they still arguing!?” Junpei asked, impressed. She shrugged.

“Siblings.”

* * *

  
  


“Hey, look what I found!” Ken grinned, holding something up.

“Is that… a picture book?” Yukari asked. “Oh, it’s one of the pop-up ones.”

“This seems suspicious,” Mitsuru stated. Shinjiro nodded.

“Yeah. With this place, I wouldn’t be surprised if something actually did pop out of it.”

“There’s a four-leaf clover on the cover, though,” Rei pointed out. “That means it’s lucky! Does that mean I can eat it?”

“...How’d you- no, I don’t want to understand that logic.”

“Look, if a Shadow pops out, then bring it on!” Akihiko declared.

“That’s… not normal logic, either.”

“Ken-kun found the book, though,” Hamuko pointed out. “So he should be the one to decide what to do with it.” There. Whatever happened, it was not her problem.

“O-oh! Okay!” Ken nodded and opened the cover. “Huh? It…” The book glowed, and a four-leaf clover appeared in Ken’s hand.

Hamuko smiled. “That means you’re lucky, Ken-kun! You should keep it.”

“Do you think we can find a picture book that food pops out of…?”

“Rei. No.”

* * *

  
  


The problem with being in a large group, Hamuko realized, was that she couldn’t always be at the front if she wanted to talk to someone in particular, and that meant she couldn’t always set the pace. “Huh…? Shinjiro-senpai, why’d you stop?”

“There’s some weird… pink thing moving around ahead.” Next to Hamuko, Yukari peered around the others.

“Yeah… it looks like a rabbit, but…” Okay, this she had to see. Carefully, she slipped around Junpei, Mitsuru, and Koromaru.

“It’s a rabbit!” Rei cheered. “How cute!” She’d be more inclined to agree if the thing actually had eyes.

“There are no records of a rabbit with a pink coloration in my database.”

“Rabbit…” Zen muttered to himself. “A rabbit… where have I…?” She’d leave him to it.

“Fuuka-chan, can you sense anything from it?” Hamuko asked the empty air.

“Um… sort of. I can’t get a good read on it, though…”

“Really? Well, what do you have?”

“It seems different from the FOEs. ...Actually, it doesn’t seem to be hostile at all. It’s like it’s… waiting for you.”

“Waiting for us…?” Yukari questioned. “Oh, because this is Alice in Wonderland? That’s how Alice ends up in Wonderland in the book, after all.”

“Then, do you think we should follow it?” Ken suggested. Rei nodded.

“Yeah! Rabbits are our friends!”

Yukari sighed. “You’re all making it sound like we have to… what if it’s an enemy?”

“It would still be a clue,” Mitsuru pointed out. “And if Yamagishi’s right… it could be significant.”

“I wish to chase it as well,” Zen told everyone. “I believe that I have seen it somewhere before.”

“You do…?”

“That’s good, right?” Hamuko asked. “I mean, that means he could be getting his memories back. We just need to catch the rabbit!”

“A pink rabbit… that’s a rare one.” She could practically see Akihiko’s grin, even though she wasn’t looking at him. Shinjiro sighed.

“...Don’t eat it.”

“I meant uncommon, not how cooked it is! ...I can’t believe you didn’t get that from context.” And Hamuko couldn’t believe he was taking the obvious bait, but…

“...Heh. You can’t even take a hint.” Well, that.

Mitsuru tried to step between them, but Hamuko stopped her. “Wait. I want to see where this goes.”

“Shinji! I challenge you to see who can catch that rabbit first!”

“Psh, like you’d ever win.”

“...And we can just let them handle the rest,” Hamuko stated, watching them run off. “Just… maybe we should follow them. Make sure they don’t get themselves killed doing something stupid.”

* * *

  
  


“...So, how’d it go?” Hamuko asked, glancing at where Akihiko and Shinjiro was sitting on the floor.

“Tch… Just when we almost got it, it keeps slippin’ away… But it always stayed right where we could see it.”

“And the claw marks?”

“Lion Shadow showed up, Aki tried punching it… it didn’t go well.” She sighed. In hindsight, letting Akihiko have Sandman wasn’t the best idea, after all.

“Okay… and where is the rabbit now?”

“It jumped through that painting over there.” Hamuko sighed.

“Of course it did… Fuuka-chan?”

“I-It seems the rabbit punched a hole in the wall and escaped to the other side… It’s still going…”

Hamuko shook her head. Leaping through a painting to chase a rabbit… and she wasn’t even surprised by it.

This was going to be a long adventure...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This version of SEES is rather... liberal about using their powers in disagreements. Well, Hamuko and Mitsuru are. Aki doesn't even realize he's doing it. He's going to break something important one day. (And on that day, the electrician called in to fix it will be very confused.)


	6. In Which They Still Don't Catch the Rabbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko and friends run through the rest of the second floor. This actually goes better than expected.

“Huh. I’d wondered when one of those was going to show up,” Hamuko commented, watching a pair of golden hands just up ahead. As if it had heard her, one of them immediately vanished.

“What just happened?” Zen asked.

“Those Shadows do that a lot,” Fuuka explained. “They startle easily, but they drop a lot of money when defeated.” The remaining hand went up in flames. “Like that. Really, Junpei-kun?”

“...Would you believe Pixie told me to?” Actually, Hamuko would, if only because Personas were weird like that.

“And you’re sure you didn’t just want to take the money for yourself?” Yukari asked.

“It was better than letting it run away! You know how painful that is!”

Hamuko sighed. “Junpei, Yukari, now’s not the time.” If only because she’d inevitably end up having to take sides, and while Junpei’s kill-stealing habit was annoying, she couldn’t blame him when she used golden Shadows to supplement her budget whenever she went over it. Which happened often.

* * *

  
  


“This really is a maze…” Yukari sighed. “I feel like we’re in an amusement park or something.”

“Actually, doesn’t that make it seem kinda fun?” Junpei pointed out.

Shinjiro sighed. “An amusement park… with Shadows in it?”

“Sounds like New Year’s when I was eight,” Hamuko commented. Everyone turned to stare at her. “It wasn’t that bad, actually. Someone left a hockey stick lying around for some reason, and I used it to beat my first Shadow to death. Honestly, I thought it was a bad dream for a while…”

“You killed your first Shadow with a hockey stick?” Ken asked, sounding impressed.

“Well, it was just a Cowardly Maya,” She pointed out. “If you can’t kill one of those with whatever you have on hand, you really don’t deserve to be active in the Dark Hour. Actually, I think I still have that hockey stick somewhere…”

“Yuki, please don’t bring a hockey stick to Tartarus,” Mitsuru told her. “No matter how useful of a weapon that you think it is.”

“Fine…” She muttered, but still making a mental note to search through her closet some time. If only to make sure that her first weapon was, in fact, still there.

She was pretty sure that thought was Thanatos’ influence, but at this point, she couldn’t really bring herself to care.

* * *

  
  


The next time that the group reached a door, Fuuka spoke up. “You’re closing in on that rabbit again. It’s a closed room up ahead, so you should have a good shot.”

“A closed room?” Ken went over the map again. “But we’re nowhere near the bottom of the Labyrinth, right?”

“I don’t think so…” Fuuka paused. “...Sorry, I still can’t get any sense out of this. Koropokkur’s helping a little, but it’s not much.”

“Okay, I’ve got an idea,” Hamuko spoke up. “Yukari, Aigis, you two run down to the other side of the room- that corner, there. Koro-chan, you run that way, and then loop around. We should be able to corner it that way.”

“Are you sure about this?” Yukari asked. “That corner has a painting in it. It jumped through the last one.”

“And we’re nowhere near the bottom of the Labyrinth!” She finished. “So we need the rabbit to open us a path!”

“That does make a lot of sense…” Her friend admitted. “But don’t you want to catch it?”

“If we drive it to the bottom of the Labyrinth, it won’t have anywhere to hide,” She replied. “It’ll take longer, but we’ll actually be able to get there. Unless you’d like to be stuck on the same two floors forever?”

“I’d… rather not.”

“Exactly. Now, let’s go!”

* * *

  
  


“Junpei, do we really need to discuss the kind of things you are and aren’t allowed to touch in a Shadow nest?”

“Come on, it all turned out fine!”

“You mean, up until the great sword uprising?”

“And we all got out okay!”

“...You know I think Mitsuru-senpai’s looking for volunteers to test out that actual sword she found, and I don’t think she’s picky enough to need a Shadow.”

“...Shutting up now.”

* * *

  
  


“Sometimes, I worry that you all have no sense of danger,” Zen commented.

“Danger? What’s that?” Hamuko joked, immediately feeling bad about it. “...Sorry. Anyway, it’s important for everyone to conserve energy.”

“You don’t care if Rei faces danger. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Not at all!” She tried not to panic. She did. But Zen didn’t seem to realize that pointing loaded crossbows at people was a bad idea, so maybe a bit of fear ended up coming out in her voice.

“Zen, don’t do that!” Rei reprimanded him. “That’s dangerous! Besides, with this many people, it’s safe now!”

“...Very well.” Hamuko let out a sigh of relief.

“Either way, we should have someone on guard,” Mitsuru stated.

“I’ll do it,” Hamuko stated. Walking down the corridor a little bit, she turned, keeping an eye out for any Shadows. There was a flash of white, and-

And she found herself waking up several minutes later, wrapped up in Shinjiro’s coat and using a folded up outfit from her bag as a pillow. Next to her, Junpei was apparently trying to teach Ken, Zen, and Rei how to play cards.

She’d be annoyed at him for being a bad influence, were it not for the fact that Rei apparently knew the game even better than he did. Besides, she was still a bit tired, and Shinjiro’s coat was warm. Knowing him, she wouldn’t get another chance the entire time they were there.

Satisfied that her friends weren’t going to die or kill each other in the next fifteen minutes or so, Hamuko decided to go back to sleep. She could deal with everything later.

Including everyone’s irritation about how she’d managed to get knocked out by a table. No, that was not a conversation she was looking forward to in the slightest.

* * *

  
  


“Two FOEs confirmed. Shall we prepare for combat?” Aigis’ question was probably the last thing that Hamuko wanted to hear that day.

“There’s no need to be so reckless.” She never thought she’d be so relieved to hear Mitsuru talk. Most of the time, she was terrified of ending up an ice cube. Even when she had an ice Persona equipped. “Let’s try to synchronize our movements and slip past them.”

“Us? Synchronized?” Hamuko wasn’t entirely sure her voice was capable of conveying just how unlikely she thought that was.

“I sense tremendous power from these FOEs,” Fuuka spoke. “Please, be careful…”

Hamuko considered making a quip, but then remembered that she’d been taken by surprise by a table, and didn’t feel like dealing with Mitsuru’s death glare at the moment.

“Maybe we should do this one at a time,” She suggested instead. “We’ll be less noticeable that way.” And, in worst case, the unlucky person would make pretty good bait… no, that was a bad idea.

* * *

  
  


“There’s that rabbit,” Zen spoke up. Hamuko glanced past it.

“There’s the stairs. Does anyone actually think we can get at it?” Nobody replied, and they watched the pink creature hop down the stairs without even trying to move towards it.

“Oh, well. Let’s continue to pursue it.” They all nodded, and descended the stairway once again.

Again, like a Tartarus block, the world around them changed greatly. The purple squares on the floor remained, but the ones that would have been yellow were now red, and the walls were dark-colored brick. Honestly, if Hamuko wasn’t used to the Dark Hour, she would have found it rather unsettling.

Zen turned to Rei. “Are you tired?”

“I-I’m okay!” She stammered out, maybe a bit too quickly. Right. Rei had probably never experienced the Dark Hour.

“...Are you feeling scared?” Ken asked. He didn’t seem to have much of a problem, either.

It occurred to Hamuko that maybe her team were a bit too used to unusual and terrifying things happening. That would probably turn out to be a bad thing, one day.

“I-I’m not scared!”

“But your hands are shaking…”

“Shaking with excitement! So my body temperature rises and my digestion improves and I can eat even more!” Rei insisted, fooling no one.

“I… don’t think that’s how it works…” Rei ignored Ken’s concerns, instead pulling out a box of food from… somewhere. No, still not as odd as Pharos, she still didn’t teleport.

“I’ll do my best. See, I want to go back with you all! Let’s keep working together, Ken-chan!” Zen glanced at Ken, and then turned away. Pretty pathetic, considering that the kid was eleven.

“Ooh, looks like your bodyguard is all jelly!” Junpei teased.

“Jelly?”

“Okay, guys, new rule,” Hamuko declared, watching the fallout. “Nobody is to use food-based jokes or euphemisms around Zen-kun and Rei-chan. It’s funny, don’t get me wrong, but…”

“It is kind of sad,” Yukari agreed. “Is Zen-kun really that dense?”

“Dense? What is this all about?” Huh. She might have actually found someone with less social skills than Akihiko. ...That was a scary thought.

“We’re just talking about how cute Rei-chan is!” Rei immediately started sputtering. Hamuko didn’t even know it was possible to go that red.

“Thank you… very much…”

“Is she… trying to hide her embarrassment behind a corn dog?” Hamuko asked. Yukari turned to her.

“I think she might actually be worse than you are.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” She lied through her teeth. Okay, no signs of Shadows, equipping Thanatos should be safe… and less potentially mortifying.

“See? He’s totally glaring at us!” Junpei grinned. “Though I was serious about Rei-chan being cute. Like, look how innocent she is! That’s how a girl should be, you know?” Suddenly, Hamuko felt vindicated in her decision to never accept dating advice from Junpei, even if he was the only member of SEES who was actually seeing somebody.

“...What are you looking at me for?” Yukari asked.

“I mean, just the other day…” Junpei trailed off, glancing between Yukari and Hamuko. Apparently, he had just realized that he had a good chance of irritating half the team.

“Go on, Junpei,” Hamuko started, giving an evil grin. “Dig yourself a little deeper, why don’t you?” ...Right, this was why she never used Thanatos. Forget being uncontrollable, a little deathly embarrassment never hurt anybody compared to creeping out everyone in the room.

“I’d… rather not.”

“Don’t worry- it’s not like we want him to call us cute, anyway,” Yukari pointed out.

“That is a good point,” She admitted.

“Ooh, then who do you want to hear that from?” Thankfully, Hamuko hadn’t swapped back to Orpheus yet, or she was pretty sure she would have been unable to make a coherent sentence. As it was, she simply sighed and summoned Anzu.

“Junpei. Stop it.”

“Why? Is there something you don’t want to tell us? Everyone knows about- ow! That hurts!”

“It’s supposed to.” Right. Breathe in… out… and back to Orpheus. Hopefully, he’d figured out to drop the subject.

“Honestly… do the three of you want to be left behind?” Mitsuru asked.

“Sorry, Mitsuru-senpai. Do any of you have a Persona that can cast Makajam? I think life would be easier for us all if Junpei stopped talking...”

“Everyone, may I have your attention for a moment?” Fuuka asked, causing them all to stop. “Theodore has something he’d like to discuss, so please come back to the Velvet Room. It sounds like it’s good news! We’ll be waiting for you!”

“...Please tell me Elizabeth won’t be there…” Hamuko muttered to herself. “...Okay, who’s ready to walk back up an entire two floors?”

Suffice to say, nobody was really happy with that.

“I believe the probability of this being ‘good’ depends entirely on whether Elizabeth-san has any say in this matter.”

Hamuko sighed. “Don’t worry, Aigis. If we’re lucky, he just found my Compendium. Huge money sink, but it’s better than all of us having to choose from Personas like Slime and Ukobach… though I’d still prefer to not have to walk all the way out.” What she wouldn’t give for a convenient teleportation spell... 

* * *

  
  


Upon emerging from the Labyrinth, the first thing that Hamuko did was check to make sure Elizabeth was nowhere in sight. There was no sign of her in the crowd of illusory students, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

And it didn’t, as the golden-eyed woman was waiting in the Velvet Room. “I apologize for the sudden summons,” She greeted them. “But we have finally finished preparations!”

“I finished preparations,” Theo corrected. “You blew things up when you didn’t think I was moving fast enough.”

“You needed motivation,” She stated, as if that answered everything. To her, it probably did.

“I… sort of lost you at preparations,” Junpei admitted.

“I have located an unused Compendium so that you may better organize your Personas without infringing on Hamuko-sama’s personal collection,” He elaborated, “As well as setting up a space so you can undertake Persona fusion.”

“I don’t get all of my Personas from Shuffle time or the Compendium,” Hamuko explained. “My strongest Personas are the ones I’ve fused- by combining multiple Personas together, I can create a new one that carries all the skills of its predecessors- with the help of this room, of course.”

Theo nodded. “That is, in essence, the true purpose of the Velvet Room- a place where those with multiple Personas can seek assistance in fusion. It took some time, but I believe that this place is stable enough to perform fusion.”

“...What happens if you’re wrong?” Hamuko asked, not particularly wanting to know the answer.

“In the worst case scenario, a cataclysmic hole is ripped in time and space,” Elizabeth stated. It was impossible to tell from her face whether she was joking or not. “But then, it won’t be my fault. You are Theo’s guest, after all, and he must take responsibility.”

“...Very well.”

“What’s the matter?” Hamuko asked. “You were fine with fusing something for me earlier. If you think this place is safe to use, it probably is.”

“You sure about this?” Yukari glanced at her.

“As much as I can be.”

“Your faith in me will not be misplaced, I swear it,” Theo stated. “If fate necessitates it, then yes, I will lend you as much assistance as needed. I am not as well-versed in this as our master, but I shall do my best to aid you all.”

“Fusing a powerful Persona is the best method of strengthening oneself…” Elizabeth mused, a far-off look in her eyes. “The stronger the enemy, the more powerful the required fusion.”

“I see…” Mitsuru nodded, and then turned to Hamuko. “Yuki, as the one most experienced with this room, I trust you know how to get the most out of this ‘fusion’ process?”

“...Yeah. But my wallet’s really going to be hurting by the end of this. Okay, first we need to put our sub-Personas in the Compendium…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Remember the days before Traesto and Goho-Ms? Yeah, if they want to leave the Labyrinth, they have to walk. Hamuko doesn't mind it that much, if only because it minimizes the time she spends around the Velvet Room- specifically, its residents. Even more specifically, Elizabeth, who may end up with comparatively less screentime than canon Theo for this reason.
> 
> Feel free to imagine Hamuko giving everyone a short seminar on 'How to be a Wild Card', with only half of them listening, one of which being the dog. Because that's basically what she's doing, for the entire first Labyrinth. And Aigis is one of the ones not paying attention. Cue Answer-timeline Mitsuru complaining that she knows more about being a Wild Card than the actual Wild Card, and being completely correct.


	7. Side: P4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like Hamuko, Seta Souji wanted to have a semi-normal day. Like Hamuko, life completely fails to live up to his wishes.
> 
> But did it really have to bring his sister along, too?

Oct 30. 2011

 

If Seta Souji had to pick one thing he’d experienced since coming to Inaba, and not understood, it would have to have been his school trip to Iwatodai. More specifically, his group’s encounter with Amada Ken and his dog, Koromaru.

It wasn’t running into another Persona User that was the strange part, even if he was rather young for it. Nor was the fact that his pet had a Persona- Souji’s group had a Shadow, even if Teddie didn’t want to admit it and the rest of them just avoided the subject to keep from making him uncomfortable. It was the fact that the kid seemed to know them- more than that, he’d known what their Personas and Arcana were. Even Naoto’s, and Naoto didn’t even have a Persona yet.

He’d also known that Naoto was a girl, but that was somewhat less worrying. If only because the matter of her gender was something based firmly in the world of the mundane, mad scientist of a personal Shadow or not.

Ken hadn’t explained anything, of course. Just handed him a note with a phone number and instructions to call him at any point after the first of November, with his whole team plus his sister assembled. Which was probably a bad sign about something, but Souji couldn’t say what.

He probably should have tried to push the thoughts out of his head, but it was almost November, and therefore, he’d soon have to call Ken if he wanted any sort of answers. And he did want answers, not to mention what Naoto would do to him if she thought he didn’t care about a possible ‘security leak’.

Not that they’d ever been big on security. Their ‘Secret Headquarters’ was enough to get that point across rather clearly.

“Souji-nii? Are you okay?” Nanako asked. “You’re burning the eggs.”

“...Oh. Sorry. I’m fine…” He mumbled. Nanako being part of this was most of the reason he was so wary of Ken. He didn’t want his sister pulled into anything to do with Shadows besides Teddie.

“Should I get some more eggs?” She asked. “The burnt parts aren’t very good for you.”

“I know. But it’s not all burned, see? We can just get rid of this, and it’ll be all better.” He gave her a soft smile as he divided the breakfast portions. It might not have been perfect- his uncle wasn’t home to eat with them- but these were the moments that made him really happy that he lived in Inaba.

* * *

  
  


After Souji and Nanako finished breakfast, they heard a knock on the door. Souji opened it to see Tatsumi Kanji, one of his friends and teammates.

“H-hey, senpai, Nanako-chan,” The boy greeted, his hands filled with boxes. “Good morning.”

“Good morning!” Nanako chirped back.

“Hey, Kanji. What’s in the boxes?” Souji asked.

“Oh, Ma just wanted to make lunch for us. I told her it was fine, since you normally cover it, but…”

“Ooh, can I see?” Kanji glanced between the things he was carrying and Nanako.

“Um… sure?” He staggered over to the table, setting his burden down and opening a box. “See, they’re all basically the same… Oh, but I helped a bit. See, it’s the simmered one.”

“You’re going to need to be a bit more specific than that,” Souji pointed out. “There’s a lot of simmered dishes.”

“Come on, it’s this one right here-” Kanji was cut off, however, by the sound of a large, ominous bell. “...What’s that?”

“A bell?” Nanako asked, tilting her head. “But… there aren’t any bells like that around here.”

“It’s probably nothing,” Souji stated, while at the same time making sure his glasses were still in his pocket. Maybe he’d wear them today- just in case. “Still… Nanako, as soon as you can, or if anything weird happens, come up to Yasogami, okay?”

“Got it, Souji-nii.” She nodded. “...Aren’t we going to be late?”

...So they were. That was bad.

Souji decided to put his thoughts involving Shadows and Personas out of mind for the moment. There were more important things to deal with right now. Like actually making it to school.

* * *

  
  


“And this, Yosuke, is why you don’t suggest a joke option,” Souji stated, sitting at one of the tables in the deserted Group Date Cafe. “People will actually think it’s funny.”

“Didn’t you vote for this?” Chie asked. “And take those off- people will notice!”

“They haven’t at all today,” He pointed out, adjusting his glasses. “Besides, I have a… strange feeling about today. You remember the kid we met on the trip, right?”

“Amada-kun?” Yukiko nodded. “He was a bit odd, wasn’t he?”

“When we met him, he literally asked if you had Amaterasu yet,” Chie deadpanned. “I’m not sure ‘a little odd’ quite cuts it.”

“You know, I wonder how a kid like him even got a Persona,” Yosuke commented. “He seems a bit young, doesn’t he? It’s probably an interesting story.”

“Yosuke,” Souji started, “Do you remember how you got your Persona? Do you really want to ask a thirteen-year-old about something like that?” One of these days, he really needed to teach his partner about the meaning of the word ‘tact’. Preferably before he corrupted Teddie worse than they already had, because it turned out that a ragtag group of misfit teenagers and their inner demons made terrible role models. He just hoped they didn’t mess up Nanako.

“I guess not…” There was a squeaking sound from the hall, and they turned to see the resident bear enter the room, followed by the three first years.

“Huh, still nobody here?” Rise asked, glancing around. “That’s a shame. A group date sounds like it would be a lot of fun.” Kanji turned to her.

“Are you saying that because you mean it, or because that’s the closest you’ll get to a date with Souji-senpai?”

“Can you blame me?”

“Given that I was already dating Yukiko when we met… yes, Rise-chan. Yes, he can.” Rise pouted. Souji didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t like she meant anything by it, anyway.

He turned to Naoto. “By the way, has Kanji told you about what happened this morning?”

“You mean that bell?” Teddie asked.

“We heard it, too,” Yosuke explained. “Though my parents didn’t seem to notice…” That was odd.

“It is rather strange,” The detective princess admitted. “Mainly because there are no longer any clock towers in Inaba. The last one, belonging to the school, was dismantled a good nine years ago. And even then, it was just a small monument. Nothing that would make the sound we all heard this morning- and only us.”

“What do you mean only us?” Kanji asked. “Senpai, didn’t Nanako-chan hear the bell?”

She did… and that was the part that worried Souji the most.

* * *

  
  


Nanako ran down the street, keeping her eyes wide open and searching for someone. Anyone. She just needed to see at least one sign of life.

It had been a perfectly normal day, at first. She’d gone to school, talked with her friends… everything was fine. And then she’d gone to the bathroom, and when she came out, everyone was gone.

She’d freaked out, for a moment, but then she remembered what Big Bro had told her. If anything happened, go to Yasogami. And the entire population of her school up and vanishing certainly counted as something happening.

Not just her school, either. The entire town seemed to be deserted, which was especially terrifying.

Soon, however, Yasogami High appeared in the distance. Nanako wasn’t sure what being there would do, but if Souji thought it was a good idea, then it had to be.

When she arrived, she went through the front entrance. However, the spider that was following her scuttled up the side of the building, to an open window on the second floor.

* * *

  
  


“Naoto-san, a reminder that not everyone speaks genius,” Souji stated.

“Souji-senpai, a reminder that using politeness to annoy people is incredibly immature and behaviour I would expect more of Teddie.”

“Who do you think he got it from?” Yosuke asked. “But… I don’t really get what you were saying, either.”

Naoto sighed. “Very well. As nobody outside of our group and Nanako-chan has shown any indication of hearing the bell, and as we all heard it while spread out across Inaba, we can assume that the sound is supernatural in origin.”

“But why’d Nana-chan hear it?” Teddie asked. “We all have Personas, so for us, it makes sense, but Nana-chan’s normal.”

“She also hangs out with you,” Chie pointed out. “Maybe you rubbed off on her somehow. Or Souji-kun, his powers are weird.”

“I’m right here, Chie.”

“Am I wrong?” Souji conceded the point. Honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure how his own powers worked at times. All he knew for sure was that Izanagi was his true Persona, he got stronger by making friends, and Personas like his Sraosha and Scathatch were special.

Honestly, he blamed Igor for being overly cryptic. Maybe he’d try and get a straight answer out of Margaret sometime…

“Huh?” Yosuke glanced over the room. “Did any of you see a spider?”

“Spider!? Where!?” Chie was immediately perched on her seat, cleats providing a decent purchase on the chair.

“...Wait, did you seriously wear your weapons to the Culture Festival?” Yosuke asked. “And you say partner’s glasses are a problem?!”

“Nobody pays attention to my shoes! And don’t pretend you don’t have a knife on you right now!”

“Chie, Yosuke, please don’t do anything to get yourselves arrested,” Souji sighed. “Naoto-san, pretend you can’t hear them for the next fifteen minutes or so.”

“I have been doing that ever since I joined this team,” She replied. “I find it helps me to remain sane.”

“Chie-senpai, if you’re so scared of spiders, why don’t you leave the room?” Rise suggested. “Oh, I heard there’ll be open-mic karaoke!”

They all glanced at her. “Um… You realize this is supposed to be a team meeting, right?” Kanji asked.

“Rise-chan’s got the right idea!” Teddie declared. “We’re supposed to have fun here, right? Come on, let’s go!” He turned and dashed out into the hall.

“Should we go after him?” Yukiko questioned. Souji nodded.

“Yeah, better make sure he doesn’t make too much of a scene…” Because he was going to make a scene either way. That was just what Teddie did. But they could at least stop him from doing something he’d actually regret later, if regret was an emotion he was actually capable of feeling. They weren’t too sure about that, but nor would they be all that surprised. Shadows were weird, and Teddie was easily the strangest Shadow they had ever met.

Not that they had to worry about Teddie embarrassing himself. No, the halls of Yasogami High were surprisingly empty, to the point that the Investigation Team ran into a grand total of two people walking down them.

“Margaret? Nanako?” Souji tried to keep the worry out of his voice. He wasn’t entirely sure he was successful. “Why are you here?”

“I believe you visited my fortune telling booth earlier with your girlfriend,” His assistant deadpanned.

“...Well, okay, fine, but Nanako?”

“You told me to come here if anything happened, Souji-nii,” The little girl pointed out. “And everyone’s gone now. I looked all through the town on my way here, and I couldn’t find anybody!”

“Which ties into why I decided to find you all quite nicely,” Margaret finished.

“Partner, you know this woman?” Yosuke asked.

“She helps me out with my Personas, same as Marie-chan. She doesn’t normally leave the Velvet Room, though.” Thankfully. He’d heard horror stories about golden-eyed people with silver hair wearing all blue wreaking havoc in public, and all things considered, he was ninety-six percent certain she was related to them.

“It is a pleasure to meet you all properly. I am Margaret. My purpose is, normally, to give Souji-sama whatever assistance he may require. Today, however, I am forced to approach him.”

He shrugged. “Well, we knew it wasn’t going to be a normal day once we heard that bell. What is it?”

“Well, perhaps it is best if you come to my booth- all of you, even the little one. Most of you don’t have contracts, but as it is not ‘truly’ the Velvet Room, there shouldn’t be too much trouble…”

Which was how Souji found himself stepping into a room with broken stairs, looking at two people with glaring similarity to Margaret and a teal-haired girl wearing the uniform for Gekkoukan High.

No, he was not prepared for today in the slightest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... the Nanako DLC. Is there purely for the cute factor. I'm sure I can get something out of her, Ken, and Pharos running around and just being kids.
> 
> You can probably see just how Hamuko's existence- and the fact that, unlike Minato/Makoto/Sakuya, she bothered to tell her teammates 'Oh, hey, Theo reminded me that we did this thing once'- has impacted the world by the time of P4.
> 
> The IT's encounter with Ken, from his point of view, highly paraphrased: Okay, it'll be fine, just talk to them, pretend you don't know them... "Hello, Yukiko-san. Do you have Amaterasu yet?" Shit!


	8. Of All the Places to Get Lost...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko and her friends get horribly lost. Moreso than usual, anyway. This is very not a good thing.
> 
> And that's before the shrinking potion gets involved.

“Are you seriously planning on carrying that flower pot around?” Yukari asked. Hamuko nodded.

“I sort of want to see what it’ll grow into. It probably won’t be that long- it’s a Shadow nest, everything takes less time than it should.”

“But we don’t have anything to water it with…” Ken pointed out.

“Still better than letting those beetles get it at.” As one, the entire group shuddered, remembering the lethally quick red insects.

“Just don’t try anything like balancing it on your head,” Shinjiro told her. “...Haven’t we been here before?”

“I’m not sure,” Ken admitted. “The clocks keep disappearing.”

“So, we’re lost,” Yukari sighed. “Honestly, what is this place, anyway?”

“I’d say it’s some type of garden,” Mitsuru stated. “It explains all the flowers, at least.”

“Well, at least we know what to expect from anything at the bottom…” Hamuko sighed. “...Anyone feel up for fighting a Shadow queen? I mean, besides Akihiko-senpai?”

“A queen?” Mitsuru asked. “Are you sure about this?”

“It fits both the theme, and the story,” Fuuka spoke up. “Though I can’t tell you anything for sure yet.”

“Shadows and Personas both work off of symbolism,” Hamuko explained to Zen and Rei. “Personas moreso than Shadows, but some patterns are easier than others to find. Places like this always have large, powerful Shadows at the end, and given the story that the Labyrinth comes from...” It was far too easy, sometimes.

Now, if only it were easier to figure out where they were…

* * *

  
  


After stumbling around lost for a while, they stumbled across an actual room. Hamuko noted the presence of another card, but didn’t pay much attention until Mitsuru spoke up. “Look. That soldier’s carrying what appears to be paint.” Appears to be, because in a Shadow nest, nothing was what it appeared to be.

Except for the Reaper, but as the most Hamuko generally of it were glimpses as she fled to the stairs, she didn’t count it. Sure, sometimes Junpei or Akihiko would throw a spell at it as they escaped, but that was just them being dumb, really.

“It seems to be painting the roses red…” Ken mused. Which, really, explained most all of the flowers they’d come across.

Once the soldier was done painting, it turned and hopped away. “...And there goes our exit…” Hamuko sighed. Because if they couldn’t find a way out of the Labyrinth, the least they could do was figure out how to get to the bottom and work their way back from there.

Yukari paused. “...Hey, I remember this scene. Fuuka, Hamuko, wasn’t there a part in the book like this?”

It was Fuuka who answered, though she seemed distracted by something. “Mm-hm. If I remember right, the card soldiers were painting the white roses red. They were desperate to do it so the queen wouldn’t punish them.”

“Now, I’m not advising setting people up for execution…” Hamuko started, ignoring Thanatos’ attempt to exert more influence over her mind by doing just that, “But does anyone know how to remove paint from white roses?”

“That would let us slip by the soldier…” Mitsuru admitted.

“Woof woof!” Koromaru ran up to Hamuko and lay something at her feet.

“It’s a watering can! And actual water!” Which was sort of surprising, given that she’d assumed the water here was all paint, but she wasn’t complaining. “I can water my plant!”

“...And wash the roses, right?” Yukari asked.

“...That too!” Finally, things were starting to look better.

And then another beetle the size of the corridor managed to sneak up on them while their backs were turned. Hamuko still had no idea how they kept doing that. But so long as they could still be stopped by a quick Bufula from Mitsuru, she found that she didn’t particularly care.

* * *

  
  


Hamuko stood back and watched Aigis chase the rabbit around in circles. “I feel kind of bad about this…” She admitted. “Should we do anything to stop her?”

“I’ll go on ahead…” Yukari sighed. “Hey, Zen-kun? Mind giving me a hand with this clock?”

“Very well.” Almost as soon as they’d left, another giant red bug appeared.

“...I swear they’re mocking us,” Shinjiro muttered. Somehow, that would not surprise her.

She’d never thought it was possible to truly hate a location before. Apparently, she was wrong. All it took was being lost there for long enough.

At least the presence of the rabbit meant that they were presumably moving in the right direction. She hoped.

* * *

  
  


The next door they ran into was locked. “It’s a pretty hefty one…” Akihiko commented.

“At least this one’s not electrified,” Yukari stated. Hamuko found herself nodding without thinking, Aigis doing the same. ...Huh, now that she thought about it, her team was fairly weak to electricity… and a bit fire-centric. She wondered if that was normal.

“This padlock is made of a material resistant to all external forces,” Aigis said. “It would be considerably faster to find the key… and to hope we don’t get lost again.”

“Well, it’s been a while since we saw the last disappearing clock,” Ken told them. “I think we should be fine.”

“I hope so,” Hamuko said. “...Say, has anyone heard from Fuuka-chan recently?”

“Things have been pretty quiet…” Junpei agreed. “But, if there was anything important, I’m sure she’d tell us.” It was a very, very bad day when Junpei became the voice of reason.

They continued down the path away from the door, only to reach a dead end. “...Ken-kun, are you sure we aren’t lost again?” Yukari asked.

“I’ve got the map right here. Maybe there’s something in this area… Oh, right there!” Hamuko glanced where Ken was pointing, to see a small blue door in the wall. Small, in this case, meaning that it was roughly the size of her hand.

“This is a rather small door,” Mitsuru commented. “Even Koromaru couldn’t fit through.”

“Mitsuru-san, I’ve found something.” Aigis picked up a small glass bottle from a table next to the door. “It says ‘Drink Me’.”

Mitsuru looked at the bottle. “It appears to be a beverage of some sort… but what’s in it?”

“I think that’s the thing that, if you drink it, you shrink,” Hamuko offered. “...Maybe. Look, I haven’t read that book since I was eight or so. Take it or leave it.”

“Huh? A drink from a book that you can only read while you’re eating!? I want some!” Everyone ignored Rei.

“How would the human body even manage that!?” Junpei asked.

Hamuko shrugged. “I dunno. Magic? That seems to be the answer to everything, these days…”

“I- I think I’ll pass…” Ken mumbled.

“Yeah, you don’t want to get any smaller, right?”

“...It’s not nice to tease people on sensitive subjects like that!” And now the kid was pouting. Hamuko thought it was adorable.

“Hamuko-san, may I analyze its components…? It seems to contain nothing that would deteriorate metal.” She nodded.

“Yeah, that’d be great, Aigis… though I don’t know how much you’re likely to get from that.”

“Understood.” With that, Aigis poured the contents of an entire bottle in her mouth.

“I’m almost afraid to ask…” Yukari started. “But how is it?”

“It has a light, fruity bouquet.”

“I wasn’t asking how it tastes!”

“No changes detected in my height, weight, or my bust, waist, or hip measurements.” Not that it was likely to work on robots in the first place… “However, there seem to be no components harmful to the human body.”

“So it’s safe, but it doesn’t make you small…” Junpei sighed. “What good is it for, then?”

“I’m just going to point out that Aigis… doesn’t exactly have normal biology,” Hamuko reminded them. “...Or biology at all, come to that. In hindsight, this wasn’t exactly the best experiment.”

“What should we do…?” Mitsuru mused. “Say, Akihiko, Shinjiro- oh, not again…”

“I mean, you’ve always been like this. Is it fun acting all high and mighty, criticizing everything?”

“What? You think I enjoy dealing with a crazy person who starts wrestling matches in the middle of the night?”

“Look who’s talking! When you smuggled in that stray cat, I ended up getting scolded right alongside you!”

“If you’re gonna bring that up, then maybe I should remind you about the time...!”

“Do you think they even realize we’re here?” Hamuko asked. Mitsuru shrugged.

“Honestly, I don’t know why it’s so hard to ask a little maturity from them at times.”

“Given their main Personas, it’s not really a surprise…”

“Why do you say that?” Zen asked.

“Huh?”

“Why would their powers explain anything about why they do this?” Okay, how to explain Greek mythology to an amnesiac while surrounded by Shadows… her life was bizarre.

“Well, our Personas come from our hearts, and take the form of various mythological figures,” She started. “And they have a matched set. Castor and Polydeuces, in the original legend, were twin brothers. And those two grew up together, so it makes sense that they’d come to see each other as family, even if they’ll never consciously admit it. And that includes sibling arguments.”

“...I see.”

Mitsuru sighed. “If those two were shrunk, perhaps it would help quiet them down.” Well, it would be less of a potential liability than Makajam.

“Who the hell would drink such a suspicious drink, anyway?” ...Okay, that could become a problem.

“Hell, I’ll drink it, just to prove what a coward you are.” Hamuko made a mental note to leave Akihiko on Fuuka duty for the next few weeks. Just to make sure he didn’t do anything too stupid.

“Psh, say what you want.” Akihiko immediately picked up a bottle. “Wha- hey, stop!”

“Hmph, you can’t do that, can you?” And there it was… “Then you’d better apologize to me! Say you’re sorry that you never cook anything for me!” She’d say it was petty, but given the things she’d seen Shinjiro feeding Koromaru…

“...What?” Even Shinjiro himself seemed incredulous.

“You’re a pretty good cook, right? But I’m stuck eating beef bowls at Umiushi. And you’re fine with that!?” Okay, this wasn’t good, she could smell ozone now. At least Shadows were unlikely to approach with all the static filling the air.

“You eat their beef bowls because you like ‘em! I mean, why the hell should I cook for you!? I’d rather drink this shit than cook for you and watch you slather that protein crap all over it!” Hamuko wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good thing that she’d been able to see this coming.

“Yikes, there he goes…” Junpei commented.

“Those idiots…!” Mitsuru sighed.

“Man, is that really why they were fighting…?”

“No, that was just the most recent topic they fixated on,” Hamuko told him. “I’m sure they’ll stop eventually…” Or maybe not, given that they completely ignored the effects of the shrinking potion to keep going.

“They’re like little dollies!” Rei commented. Groaning, Mitsuru reached down and picked them up, not even flinching when the static electricity Akihiko was giving off zapped her.

“Would you like me to freeze the two of you together permanently?” She asked. Which was apparently a serious enough threat for them to stop entirely. “I hadn’t thought they’d actually shrink so small…”

“How strange. My component analysis was flawless.”

“It turns out that technology is no match for a magic potion,” Hamuko shrugged, before an idea struck her and she grinned. “Hey, Mitsuru-senpai-”

“Here you go.” Shinjiro was dropped into her hands before she could even finish asking.

“Thanks!”

“Hey, put me down!”

“I don’t think so.” Instead, she lifted him up to her eye level. “You’re just too cute!” She was aware that, later, Junpei was going to tease her mercilessly. At the moment, she wasn’t particularly inclined to care.

“H-Hamuko!” Wait… was he blushing!? She was tempted to try and cuddle him… but no, they deserved to keep some dignity. Whatever of it was left after this, anyway. Somehow, she didn’t see there being a lot of it.

“There’s still a bottle of this drink left…” Ken pointed out.

“Then I want some!” Rei volunteered. Zen immediately stopped her.

“No. It’s dangerous.”

“I want to-”

“No.”

“I-”

“No.”

“...Fine…”

“Hmm…” Hamuko decided that she didn’t like the look on Junpei’s face.

“Not you, either,” She told him.

“But I didn’t even say anything!”

“You didn’t have to. Now, do you want me to tell Chidori-san about this?” Wow, she didn’t know he could go that pale.

“Wait, no! I- I’ll do anything! Just please not that!”

“Then you aren’t drinking that. Got it?” Sometimes, it didn’t pay to be the semi-responsible one.

Yukari turned to her. “Why would he- oh. Yeah, we’re not letting him touch it. So, what are we going to do with this?”

It was rather tempting… and she’d already thrown away all of the respect she was going to get this outing by reacting to the tiny Shinjiro, so why not?

“Shinjiro-senpai, if I put you down, you’re not going to get stepped on, right?” She asked.

“Do you really think I’d be that careless?”

“Would you like a recap of the past ten minutes?” Shinjiro didn’t reply. “I thought so.”

“Look, nobody’s going to step on me! Just put me down, already!”

* * *

  
  


Hamuko didn’t think that the world looked all that different to a tiny person. Yes, everything else seemed taller, but that was about it.

Well, she could also probably use Koromaru as a war mount, but she thought that the dog might have a few objections to that. So she didn’t suggest it, instead leading Akihiko and Shinjiro through the little door.

The room itself wouldn’t be all that large to a normal-sized person. Even to the three of them, it wasn’t very big. In fact, most of it was taken up by a rosebush with a key hanging from one of the branches.

“You think that’s the key to the lock outside?” Akihiko asked. Shinjiro shrugged.

“Maybe. But how are we supposed to get it down from there?”

“I can help with that!” They all glanced up, to see an even tinier boy with bright blue eyes. Hamuko stepped forward.

“Pharos, what are you doing up there!?” She called. “Actually, why are you here to begin with, this is a Shadow Nest!”

“I take it you know this kid?”

“Unfortunately. Shinjiro-senpai, Akihiko-senpai, meet Pharos, my Social Link of the Death Arcana. I don’t know where he comes from, I don’t know what he is, and I don’t know why he’s here, but if you can see him, that means he’s officially not a hallucination.”

“Hey, that’s not nice!” Hamuko wasn’t sure, but she thought he was puffing out his cheeks. “I thought we’d already established that!”

“You randomly appear my room during the Dark Hour! How was I supposed to know if you were real or not!?”

“...That is a good point,” The little boy admitted. “But still! You don’t just say that in front of people!”

“I’m not sure you have any room to talk about social skills!” She snapped back. Suddenly, she became very aware of the fact that it wasn’t just the two of them this time. “...We’ll talk later! Just throw us the key already!”

“Sure thing!” He shoved the object off the branch, where it landed on the floor with a metallic clang. Just as suddenly as he’d first appeared, he popped out of existence and reappeared in front of the three of them. “How’s this?”

“I’m guessing you don’t know how he does that, either?” Akihiko asked.

“Nope. He’s easily the strangest person I’ve ever met, even counting Rei-chan. Unless she also teleports and hasn’t shown us yet.”

“If she could teleport, we wouldn’t be here,” Shinjiro pointed out. Which was true, none of them particularly wanted to be in the Labyrinth at the moment… unfortunately, they still had no clue how to get out. Not helped by the fact that Fuuka had gone silent all of a sudden.

“You know it’s rude to talk about people like they aren’t here….” Pharos complained.

“Sorry, Pharos,” Hamuko apologized, “But we really have more important things to worry about. Thanks for the key, though.”

“You’re welcome!” For just a moment, the little boy gave a dazzling smile, before vanishing once again. She hoped he didn’t show up again for a while, if only because he was distracting.

“Okay, so… You two grab the key while I get the door?” She suggested, turning to open it again after it had swung shut behind them.

She was greeted with the sight of her friends fighting yet another giant red beetle, and closed the door again. “...Once they’re done with that, anyway.”

Neither of them protested the decision. Likely because of the Maragi spell that had detonated right where they were going to go outside.

It was Akihiko who broke the silence. “So… you think Shinji’s cute, huh?” Shinjiro and Hamuko, both blushing and refusing to look at anyone, responded in unison.

“Sh-shut up!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the omnipresence of the beetle- yes, this is accurate to my gameplay experience. Every time. I'm not even sure how they can blindside you, they're as big as the Labyrinth! At least it's not as big as some of the ambush parties in Etrian Odyssey, but still, this is what you have Navigators for!
> 
> Fuuka cannot answer the phone right now. Fuuka is playing with Nanako-chan.
> 
> The shrinking thing is the best event in Wonderland, hands down, no matter which side you're playing. Tiny Aki and Shinji! Tiny Teddie and Yosuke! They're all so cute! I wanna cuddle them.


	9. White Roses, White Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Fuuka hasn't called back in a while... fortunately, it turns out that having a navigator isn't really necessary! Sort of. They at least manage to not get themselves killed.
> 
> This isn't saying much.

Eventually, it became safe for Hamuko, Akihiko, and Shinjiro to return through the door. As they did so, the odd liquid that they drank wore off, restoring them to their original sizes.

“Oh, there they are!” Rei greeted them. “Welcome back!”

Hamuko nodded. “Yeah, we’re back. You guys didn’t have any trouble while we were gone, right?”

The rest of SEES glanced to where Koromaru was playing with the detached wing of the beetle Shadow. “...No, no trouble at all,” Yukari said. Hamuko didn’t believe her, but decided against saying anything.

Rei glanced at Akihiko. “Are you okay…?” The silver-haired third year just nodded and shivered, looking for all the world like someone who had gotten on the wrong end of a Bufu spell or three.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Hamuko realized that her team was far too good at lying to each other. That could be a problem one of these days.

“We got the key,” Shinjiro pointed out. “Does anything else matter?”

“I suppose not,” Mitsuru agreed. “Well done.”

Junpei turned to Yukari. “Hey, don’t Shinjiro-san and Hamu-tan look rather red?”

“Does it surprise you? After what she said earlier, I’m shocked she’s coherent.” Hamuko pretended she hadn’t heard them. Instead, she decided to go over to Koromaru.

“Hey, Koro-chan. Spit that out, you don’t know where it’s been.” Koromaru looked up at her with sad, wide eyes. “...Or maybe a few more minutes.”

* * *

  
  


“So, your friends are stuck in there, huh?” Rise asked, Himiko summoned and already starting her scan. “Wow, this place is big. No wonder they got lost.”

“Ken-kun was making a map, but…” Fuuka trailed off. Souji glanced at her.

“By Ken-kun, you mean Amada, right?” He checked.

“Yes… how did you know?”

“We met him on our school trip back in September,” Naoto explained. “At that time, Amada-san expressed knowledge of things he should have had no way of finding out, such as the name of the Persona I had not yet awakened.”

“He also said he’d give us a proper explanation in November,” Yosuke continued, “And that, whatever it was, he wanted Nanako-chan present as well. Which made no sense, since Nanako-chan didn’t even know about Personas, but…” He shrugged. “I dunno. Time travel is weird.”

“So where were your friends the last time you checked, Fuuka-senpai? That’ll help me with my search.”

“Well… they were somewhere on the third floor. I don’t think they’ve gone any deeper, but…” She pulled out her Evoker. Souji would have been concerned if he hadn’t seen Ken bring out his Persona in the exact same way. He still thought it was more than a bit messed up, but he didn’t say anything.

The shape of Lucia shattered into existence, and Fuuka gained a look of intense concentration. “...They’re still on the same floor, but they’re a lot deeper in, now. And they’re right next to an FOE… I wouldn’t want to distract them, not in this situation. Rise-chan, I’ll help you and Seta-san for now.”

So today was still really weird. At least they wouldn’t be dealing with it alone.

* * *

  
  


“Oh, look!” Rei ran down a corridor, only to come back with a beautifully-decorated picture book. “It’s another one!”

For a moment, Ken pulled his clover out of his pocket to look at it. “I got this from a book on the last floor. What’s on the cover of this one?”

“It’s a ladybug!” Hamuko glanced at it.

It was a beetle, yes, but it looked more like…

“It doesn’t seem any less suspicious than the other one,” Shinjiro pointed out.

“With the last book, it was Ken-kun who found it, so opening it was Ken-kun’s decision,” Hamuko started, already seriously regretting this. “I don’t see why Rei-chan shouldn’t be the one to choose here.” At the same time, she gestured to Mitsuru to prepare for battle.

Sure enough, it was another beetle. “I hate this place…”

For obvious reasons, nobody seemed to disagree with her.

* * *

  
  


Hamuko peered into the next room, before relaying what she found to her team. “Rabbit, check. Rosebushes, check. FOEs…. Also check. And Fuuka-chan hasn’t said anything in over an hour. Anyone here good at logic puzzles?”

“I’m starting to worry about Yamagishi,” Mitsuru admitted. “She’s never been out of contact for this long before.”

“Yeah, Zen-kun, are you sure Shadows don’t leave the Labyrinth?” Yukari asked.

“It has never happened before. And I do not believe it would happen now.”

“Honestly, I’m not worried about Shadows,” Hamuko told them. “I’m worried about Elizabeth. And it doesn’t matter right now, we’re doing fine without her so far and can’t do anything at the moment. The painting’s what I’m more concerned about.”

“Why’s that?” She sighed and opened the door again.

“You see that river?” Really, she never thought she’d miss the vanishing clocks this much…

* * *

  
  


Eventually, they decided to take a break in what looked to be a dead end, surrounded with roses.

“I’m surprised no card soldiers have come by to paint these,” Yukari commented. “Maybe they only like bushes or something?” Hamuko shrugged. It made as much sense as anything else.

A few rose petals fell from the plants, and Koromaru barked and ran around happily underneath them.

Shinjiro sat down next to where the dog was playing. “So, you... like roses, huh?”

“Arf!” Koromaru barked in agreement.

“Heh…” He reached up and plucked a rose from one of the higher branches. “Here, this’ll make a nice souvenir.”

“They are very pretty flowers,” Ken agreed. “Um…”

“Here you go!” Hamuko handed one to him, before searching for a flower for herself. Something about them didn’t seem quite real, so odds were good that they’d last longer than the ones she normally kept.

Besides, it wasn’t like they didn’t have time. So long as Aigis stayed on guard, everything would be just fine. If only due to them generally having access to Dia.

Not that they could stay there for long. After their earlier experiences, the group as a whole were rather paranoid about the possibility of beetles. They didn’t want to wait around as bait for them.

* * *

  
  


At the next door they found, they finally heard from Fuuka again. “Wait! Don’t go in there.”

Hamuko blinked. “Fuuka-chan? Where have you been?”

“Never mind that! What matters is that there are three FOEs right past that door!”

“So much for faith in your team!” An unfamiliar female voice laughed, before stopping. “...Then again, I’d be hesitant about sending Souji-senpai and the others against that kind of thing, too.”

Mitsuru paused. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, I’m Kujikawa Rise! I’m a navigator like Fuuka-senpai: My Persona’s Himiko!”

Junpei nudged Yukari. “Hey, is it just me, or does something about her voice sound like Hamu-tan’s?”

“Huh, I’m not the only one who noticed that- but is this really the time?”

“Another Persona user?” Hamuko asked. “Really? When did she get here?”

“A few hours ago,” Fuuka answered. “She came in with a group of her friends, who went into the Labyrinth to search for you. Not that you’ll need it- you’re right by the last set of stairs.”

“But I don’t feel like calling Souji-senpai back just yet,” Rise added, “And I doubt you’d want to go back down there again, so I say you keep going! Unless you want another seven people in that tiny room…”

“Rise-chan, you aren’t helping…”

“Well, if they say we should go…” Akihiko grinned, before dashing through the door. Shinjiro immediately gave chase.

“H-hey! Get back here!” Akihiko didn’t listen.

Hamuko sighed. “...You know, I’m not really sure what I expected. Come on, let’s go after them.”

Just inside the room, Shinjiro was already berating Akihiko. “Dumbass, you don’t just go rushing in on your own like that!”

“S-sorry…” Hamuko noted that Akihiko’s feet were frozen to the ground. All things considered, that was probably a sound decision. “Look, could I move, already?”

“Only if you promise not to do anything stupid.”

“I think that’s a bit of a lost cause,” Mitsuru commented, “Given that he ran into a room he was told had three FOEs in it.”

“These are the ones that paint roses, right?” Yukari checked, peering around and searching for paint cans. “That might not be so bad…”

“We do have Fuuka-chan back,” Hamuko agreed. “So we’ve got some help… hey, Kujikawa, you any good at logic puzzles?”

“Sorry, can’t talk now,” Rise apologized. “Need to help Senpai against some tables.” It probably said a lot about recent events that Hamuko wasn’t surprised by that statement at all, and none of it good.

And, well, worst-case scenario, they just needed to hold out long enough for reinforcements to show up.

* * *

  
  


Hamuko wasn’t sure what to expect from this other group of Persona Users. All she knew was that there were seven of them and that the leader was older than Rise. Even Rise herself hadn’t said much on the matter, because she ‘wanted it to be a surprise’. She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t think that was a good thing.

Having evaded the painting soldiers, SEES now stood in front of the stairs to what Fuuka and Rise both believed was the lowest level of the Labyrinth. Zen had found a clock that he believed opened both ways.

Whether or not it did, she had no intention of checking it out. Not until she’d seen what was at the bottom of the Labyrinth.

They’d also finally be able to catch that rabbit. That’d probably be helpful in some way or another. Maybe.

But, of course, they weren’t descending just yet. Beyond the fact that they were waiting for those reinforcements, Hamuko felt that she needed to talk to Akihiko before they had a repeat of the past fifteen minutes.

“So, are you feeling okay?” She asked. “Because I haven’t seen you healing yourself at all, but we’ve thrown a lot of ice magic your way, and I don’t think frostbite would be very helpful.” And he had chunks of snow in his hair, which served as a very effective warning.

“I’ll be fine. Wasn’t anything stronger than Bufu.”

“That’s not what I was asking. I need to know how you’re feeling right now. Because either I have this talk with you, or Mitsuru-senpai does. And she’s much better at freezing things than I’ll ever be.” She changed Personas to Thanatos. Just to make sure Akihiko got the message.

And he did, it seemed, summoning Polydeuces in a flash to cast Diarama on himself. Given the quality of the attacks used against them, and the fact than neither she or Shinjiro had even been trying to actually hurt him, maybe it was a bit much. Or perhaps she was channeling Thanatos a bit too much and instilling in him a sense of mortal dread.

Honestly, all things considered, that wouldn’t even be a bad thing if it caused him to think things through a little better. She’d keep Thanatos up until she needed to fight again. Or talk to new people, creeping them out with an aura of death probably wouldn’t go too well.

“Okay, good, you got that much. Now, given that FOEs are comparable to the Reaper, we’ve never engaged in battle against even one of them before, and there were three of them back there, care to tell me what, exactly, you were thinking?”

“Um…”

“You weren’t thinking, were you? You just saw something big and powerful, and you took it as a challenge. This is even worse than taking potshots at the Reaper, at least you were using magic then!” Not that Hamuko approved of it in any capacity. Provoking things that could throw Megidolaons at you from a distance would never be a good idea.

Akihiko still didn’t respond. Honestly, in any other situation, she’d feel bad about it, but it was important that he understood, so that he didn’t get anyone killed. Because she had no illusions as to what would have happened if they’d been caught by the soldiers at any point.

And, really, this conversation was a long time coming. He’d been acting this way since… oh, that explained it. “You… really trust Shinjiro-senpai, don’t you?”

“Huh? What’s Shinji got to do with this?” Right, not everyone had access to her train of thought. Probably for the best- if they did, they’d run into Thanatos, and she wouldn’t wish that on anybody, at least that she could think of at the moment.

“You’ve been acting like this ever since he came back. Sure, you could be reckless before, but you always knew when to pull back. But now that he’s here, it’s like you expect him and Mitsuru-senpai to be the entirety of your impulse control!”

“Well, that’s… that’s just how it works. I do dumb shit, Shinji pulls me out of it.”

“But you admit that it’s dumb.” Honestly, what was she going to do with them…? Okay, probably hand them over to Mitsuru, that always worked. It also tended to end in cases of hypothermia, but at this point it was more of a routine irritation than anything else. “And if he hadn’t frozen you to the ground, you would both have died- you would have run right into an FOEs path, and he would have tried to save you. You can’t keep doing that. It’s not fair to any of us.” She wasn’t going to snap at him. Odds were that it wouldn’t solve anything, if past experience was any indication.

Suddenly, Hamuko could hear what sounded like a small collective of screaming teenagers. Oh, Zen had activated the clock portal. And there was another beetle… and another… what did they even do!?

“We’ll finish this later,” She decided. Preferably with Mitsuru as backup, because the alternative was Thanatos, and she really did prefer not to scare people.

But right now, the new people were more important. Or, rather, keeping them alive.

Though she never did figure out what they did to get the Shadows so mad at them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, Akihiko just needs someone to tell him when he's being an idiot. Sometimes, he needs several someones to tell him when he's being an idiot. And sometimes, when people aren't there, or don't notice, he goes on to be more of an idiot than usual.
> 
> Of course the P4 cast managed to catch up to them. They left open shortcuts, and also happened to be horrifically lost. Besides which, they had Fuuka and Rise both telling them to wait.
> 
> Admittedly, Hamuko probably could take a painting soldier if she were using Thanatos. It's just that she has a very understandable aversion to releasing Death in a small room that has all of her friends in it.


	10. Two Fools, a Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SEES and the Investigation Team have a proper first meeting, derailed by Hamuko's impatience to see the bottom of the Labyrinth.

“So… you’re the leader of this group, right?” Hamuko asked the silver-haired boy with glasses. “What happened?”

“Well, we’d just started walking through this floor… heard something large behind us… ran and never looked back. ...And, yeah, I guess you could say I lead this people. My name’s Seta Souji, and my Persona’s Izanagi. Fool Arcana, if that means anything to you.”

“It does. I’m a Fool, too. I’m Yuki Hamuko, and my main Persona is Orpheus. There’s also a Death Arcana in there somewhere, but…” She paused, before shrugging off Thanatos’ irritation at being ignored. He’d have to get used to it one day. “It’s never really done anything for me. I’m the SEES field leader.”

“Field leader?”

“Well, Mitsuru-senpai’s the one who writes the paychecks, and has veto power, but I’m the one calling the shots in combat. I guess it’s different for you guys, since you’re not professionals?” As much as one could turn fighting Shadows into a profession.

“Trust me, most of the time, professionalism is the last thing on our minds. I mean, my partner here got us arrested once for bringing out weapons in the food court at Junes.”

“You’re still bringing that up?” The boy next to him complained. “...Anyway, I’m Hanamura Yosuke. I’m a Magician, my Persona’s Susano-o, and I use wind magic. That’s… about it, really.” Well, that explained why he was vaguely reminiscent of Junpei. Scary as it was to think about there being two of him.

“Well, besides the whole time-traveling thing,” The girl in the green jacket who reminded Hamuko of Aigis and Rio shrugged. “And we only really know that because of Amada-kun, so…” What?

“Time travel? Are you sure?”

“Well, how old is Amada-kun?”

“Eleven.”

“When we come from, he’s thirteen,” Souji explained. “And knew what one of us would have for her Persona before she even Awakened it. Once we met Yamagishi-senpai, it… became fairly clear.”

“Huh… never thought I’d meet people from the future before.” Sure, the Velvet Room was weird, but this was something she’d never even had reason to suspect. “So, since two of you have already introduced yourselves, and there’s less of you, I guess you can continue doing that?”

“That sounds like a good idea. Let’s continue in Awakening order, then. Chie?” The girl who had mentioned the time travel thing turned to the pair of Wild Cards.

“Oh, right. I’m Satonaka Chie, Chariot Arcana, and I use the Persona Suzuka Gongen. I can use ice magic up to Bufula, and I also kick things a lot. My legs are a deadly weapon!” Oh, gods… a female version of Akihiko. Hamuko made a mental note to never leave the two alone in a room together. She was sure that, if they did, there would be at least one casualty.

The fourth, a girl with long black hair, sighed. “Chie, that’s not how you make a first impression… I’m Amagi Yukiko. According to Souji-kun, I’m a… Priestess? And my Persona is Amaterasu. I can… heal and burn things…?”

The fifth was a tall boy with bleached hair. “Hey, um… I’m Tatsumi Kanji… Emperor… and I’ve got Take- I mean, Rokuten Maoh. Still not used to that…” He devolved into mumbling for a moment, leaning on the chair he was carrying. “Oh, and I hit Shadows with this. Sometimes I electrify it.”

“Tell them about your hobbies,” Yosuke suggested in a teasing tone.

“What? No! Are you stupid or something!?”

“Moving on…” Souji sighed, as though he’d heard this conversation several times before. He probably had. “Rise was the next to Awaken, she’s a Lovers, if she didn’t already tell you, so… Teddie?”

“It’s beary nice to meet you!” The little blue creature- some sort of Shadow, maybe?- stated, hopping in place with a faint squeak. “I’m Teddie! My Bearsona’s Kintoki-Douji of the Star Arcana, and we’ve got all sorts of neat tricks! Not as much as Nao-chan, though…”

“Yes, I have a… varied arsenal of skills,” The final new Persona User, a first-year with dark blue hair, agreed. “I am Shirogane Naoto, Fortune Arcana, with the Persona Sukuna Hikona. Please ignore Teddie-san. He is… sadly bereft of the ability known as ‘tact’.”

Hamuko shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. My Star doesn’t have any social skills, either. I feel sorry for anyone he ends up getting a crush on. So, this is the whole team?”

Souji nodded. “My little sister, Dojima Nanako, is also here, but she doesn’t have a Persona, so I left her with the Velvet people. Hopefully I don’t end up regretting that… so, what about your team?” He changed the subject far too quickly. Then again, if she had a sibling, Hamuko wouldn’t want to leave them at the tender mercies of the crazy folk in blue, either.

Still, if he wanted a distraction from the possible horrible mistake he had made… she didn’t see any reason not to oblige.

“Okay, quick question. Would anyone here mind if I do the rest of the introductions?” She asked. Junpei sighed.

“You’re gonna make me look bad, aren’t you?”

“She’ll definitely turn it into a spectacle,” Yukari agreed. “...Actually, I’m sort of curious, go ahead.” Everyone else quickly gave their assent, which Hamuko took as a sign that they were all desperate for entertainment… or already realized how pointless it was for them to say no. Besides the obvious exceptions, anyway.

“Okay, so, let’s go in… order of when I think of them. Starting with… this guy.” She walked over to her best friend, before snatching his hat. “This is Iori Junpei, the local Magician. He and Hermes tend to light things on fire at the worst possible times. Don’t ask him for help with your homework, he’ll probably just make things worse.”

“C’mon, Hamu-tan, do you really have to be like that?” Junpei asked, grabbing the cap back.

“I’m just being honest.”

“This was a bad idea…” Ken sighed.

“Now to my other best friend, Takeba Yukari. Lovers Arcana, though you wouldn’t always know it from how she acts. She and Io use Garu spells… which just so happen to be Junpei’s weakness. If you see them sniping at each other, don’t worry- that’s completely normal.”

Teddie nodded. “Oh, like Yosuke and Chie-chan!” ...This new team was adding up to a terrifying image, and Hamuko wasn’t entirely sure she liked it.

“...Maybe? Let’s see, you already know Ken-kun and Nemesis… and you’ve met Fuuka-chan and Lucia…” She could hear a dog whining next to her. “Oh, you want to go next?”

“We already know Koro-chan,” Chie shrugged it off. “Met him when he was out for a walk.”

“Okay, that’s three down… right, next is Aigis. She’s a combat gynoid, Chariot and Aeon Arcana, will not stop following me around. Palladion’s good in a fight, though, so it’s not that bad, just a bit creepy. We’re working on that bit.”

“She has two Arcana?” Souji asked, sounding rather surprised. “I mean, you do, too, but I thought it was just a Wild Card thing.”

“No, that’s a thing that happens, sometimes. Like our local dioscuri. The silver-haired spark plug over there is Sanada Akihiko, Emperor of the Stars. Or something like that. And the guy with the peacoat is his impulse control, Aragaki Shinjiro of the Hierophant and Moon Arcana. Don’t be surprised if they start competing over something stupid- again, it’s normal. And, finally, Kirijo Mitsuru, wielder of Penthesilea, and the ice Empress of Gekkoukan High. Meant entirely literally. And, yes, it’s normal to find her utterly terrifying.”

“Hey, what about us?” Rei pointed out. Right, she’d acquired two more party members.

“Oh, and that’s Rei. And over there’s Zen. They don’t have Personas, but Zen-kun can use magic directly against the Shadows, and Rei-chan’s not half bad at healing. I don’t really know them very well… and that’s everyone! So, if we’re all introduced, can we get going now? There’ll be time to get to know each other better later.” Hamuko wasn’t sure how long they’d sat at the top of those stairs, but she figured that a good answer would be ‘too long’.

She also wasn’t sure why everyone had agreed so quickly, if only because nobody had the heart to tell her just how frightening her constant energy could be. So it would forever remain a mystery.

* * *

  
  


The final floor of the Labyrinth was… well, cluttered would be a good word for it. Hamuko could hear howling wind, while the void circled around the small floor they had available to them. Brown paper plants, scattered playing cards… and, in the center of the hallway, a little pink rabbit.

“So this is where it went!” Yukari remarked, stepping forward with little care for the eerie environment.

“You’ve seen it before?” Yosuke asked. Junpei nodded.

“Yeah. And this time, it’s just sitting around. I think we may be able to catch it!” Hamuko let herself smile at hearing that. Finally, after two floors of chasing after it…

She stepped forward, ready to grab the annoying little creature, only for it to vanish in a white flash. “Wh-what just happened!?”

“The rabbit’s presence has completely disappeared!” Fuuka informed them.

“A rabbit… where did I…?” Zen kept muttering to himself, before sighing and opening his eyes. “...It’s no use. I don’t think I can remember…”

“That was a rare one, too…”

“This ain’t the time to be sulking over that.”

“Two floors of effort… wasted…” She groaned.

“...Not you, too… This place… It’s obviously nowhere we’ve been so far.”

“Yeah, it… doesn’t feel like someplace we’d find in the TV,” Chie noted. “Like… it’s even creepier?” Mitsuru glanced at her.

“TV?”

“...It doesn’t matter,” Souji mumbled. “Just a future thing.”

Zen moved a few steps forward, before turning back. “...Rei, are you all right?” She nodded, hesitantly.

“M-Mm-hm. I made my choice, after all… to leave here…”

“Yes… You’re right. Let’s continue.”

“Not like we have much of a choice,” Hamuko commented. “We’ve come this far already.” She stepped forward, only for an odd light to catch her eye. She turned to see a golden gear, and two blue butterflies. “Huh? What are-?”

One of the butterflies fluttered out in front of her, pausing just in front of her gaze. The other one flew in circles around Aigis and Souji. Once they were done, however, they both vanished into the higher levels of the Labyrinth.

“Butterflies?” Yukiko glanced back in the direction they had gone. “What were they doing here?”

“I… do not know,” Zen admitted. “I have never seen those insects here before. Perhaps they have something to do with all of you.” Well, it made as much sense as anything else.

There was still no explanation for the gear, but still, Hamuko felt she was just fine with that.

* * *

  
  


In the very depths of the Labyrinth, ‘You in Wonderland’, there was a very large iron door, marked with spots of rust. “Wait, guys, don’t open that yet,” Hamuko heard Rise’s voice caution.

“Why not?” She asked.

“We’re sensing a very powerful presence from beyond that door…!” Fuuka explained. “You need to make sure you’re prepared to face it.”

“So, anyone need healing?” She checked. Everyone shook their heads. “Yeah, we should be fine! But… just in case… Seta-san and his group can stay out here, and back us up if there’s trouble. Unless you have a problem with that?”

“Not at all.”

“Aw…” Chie whined. “But I haven’t had a good fight since we got here!”

“It’s not like you’re not going to be able to back them up,” Rise pointed out. “With how powerful that thing is, you may end up just being the distraction for them to strike the final blow!”

“Fine…”

Now that Hamuko was pretty sure the door wouldn’t get rushed by all eighteen of them at once, she reached out a hand.

Like all the piano key doors, it opened without any problems whatsoever. Given how ominous it was, probably not a good sign.

She went through the door anyway.

Like she’d expected, there was a queen on the other side. Dressed in pink, covered in makeup, sprawled out over a treasure chest like it was a favorite pillow. Upon hearing the door open, she picked herself up, before turning to face the group.

“Please be careful!” Fuuka pleaded. “That’s the strongest reading I’ve seen so far in the Labyrinth!” Stronger than even the FOEs…?

“The boss has shown up, huh?” Okay, she’d definitely been taking Akihiko to Tartarus too often lately. Especially since this wasn’t anything like a floor boss.

Now, a Full Moon Shadow… that was an apt comparison. Even if Thanatos disagreed.

But it wasn’t like anything Hamuko had seen before would be a good comparison. After all, unless Pharos or Teddie were Shadows like she suspected, none of the ones she’d seen before had been able to speak.

“Danger…! I sense danger Oh no you don’t…! I won’t let you have this!” The Queen of Hearts stood protectively in front of the treasure chest.

“It speaks…?”

“You’re going to stay here forever!” She claimed. “I’ll never let you out of this world!”

“Incorrect. We will leave it.” And there was Aigis, making heroic declarations without even knowing it. Hamuko needed to convince her to watch a movie with her at some point.

Zen’s probably wasn’t any more intentional. “That’s right, we will leave this place. That’s what we’ve decided.” In response, the Queen just laughed.

“Ahhh, how hilarious, how very interesting…! You’re going to let us out, is it? Oh, how kind of you!”

“From the way it talks, it seems this Shadow is keeping us in this world…” Mitsuru already had her Evoker out. Hesitantly, Hamuko copied her. The sooner she had Orpheus out, the safer she’d feel.

“It said, ‘I won’t let you have this.’ Does it mean that thing behind it?” Shinjiro suggested. Well, it wasn’t like they’d be leaving a treasure chest unopened to begin with… treasure chests meant money and magical supplies.

“Who knows? It doesn’t seem like we can reason with it. You ready for this, Hamuko?”

“Senpai, we just talked about this. Don’t just charge off… yet, at least. Wait until you know what she can do first.”

“Activating Orgia Mode.” Well, she couldn’t say it wouldn’t be helpful…

“I won’t let you have it!” The Queen again declared. Spreading her arms, several more Card Soldiers appeared, in every suit and number. “Attend to me, my minions! Deploy the royal straight flush!”

Something told Hamuko that this was not going to be a fun battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kanji's Social Link, on Souji's end, was completed about a week ago. He's still getting used to his new levels of power. And his Persona's new name. Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko have no sympathy.
> 
> ...I'm not the only one concerned with how both iterations of Philemon are apparently in the Labyrinths, right? All you'd need is for Zen to not free the one that ended up trapped from that web...
> 
> Now, for the sake of my sanity, I need to ask: Are there any scenes from the P4 side you'd be particularly interested in seeing, especially ones with no P3 counterpart? If so, which ones? (Also asking for the sake of my playtime: the game displays it as sixteen hours, not counting my first run of the intro, the time my battery ran out during the shrinking potion event, or the numerous times a giant red beetle blindsided the party. I can only imagine what it'll look like at the end of the game...)
> 
> Forget Hamuko, I think the biggest change here is how everyone knows about the time travel from the word 'go'.


	11. Down With the Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As it turns out, fighting something that can summon a great deal of helpers is not particularly easy.
> 
> Unless, of course, you find a way to outnumber them regardless.

The first problem with fighting a large number of playing card FOEs was… well… the fact that they were fighting a large number of FOEs. Or fighting FOEs in the first place. Which wasn’t something Hamuko had wanted to deal with, but it was too late, now.

The bigger, more relevant issue was the fact that they were fighting several large enemies that worked in a group and could easily split them up. And that said enemies had enough knowledge of battle tactics to do just that.

She didn’t see if the others had managed to group together at all. It didn’t matter to her just then, with how impossible it would be to shout orders like this. Instead, she decided to focus on the nearby enemies.

“Orpheus, Agi!” She commanded, and one of the pink cards went up in flames. So at least the pink ones had a weakness to fire… or maybe it was just the five of hearts. It wasn’t like she’d ever run into a set of Shadows where the only real difference was superficial. Still, it was better than nothing, and so she quickly set herself to the task of setting soldiers on fire.

She could hear explosions from elsewhere in the room. Apparently, the others were fighting just as hard as she was. But whenever a soldier fell, two more took its place. Still, once she spotted a gap in the fighting, she ducked over to Junpei.

“Dammit, there’s no end to this…” He muttered. The air temperature was a fair bit harder than it should have been.

“There’s enough of us that there shouldn’t really be a problem…” Hamuko agreed. “Do you know where the others are?”

“Well, I was with Yuka-tan earlier, but she got mad at me and blew me into the crowd! Which was totally unfair!”

“...Right.” Somehow, that didn’t surprise her. “So… how long do you think Aigis’ Orgia Mode will last? She’s pretty good about deactivating it before she overheats, but…” In this situation, no need to take the extra risks.

“I dunno. You’re the one who thinks about all that stuff.” Nearby, a number of cards were thrown into the air by a powerful gust of wind. “Oh, hey, there’s Yuka-tan!”

“Doesn’t look like the Shadows are letting any of us have breathing room… well, at least we have backup.” Besides, if there was anyone she was worried about, it was Rei. She didn’t see to have any offensive capabilities.

“You want to call in the others?” Fuuka checked.

“I don’t see how we have much of a choice!”

* * *

  
  


“...Can we go in now?” Chie asked, for the sixth time. Souji sighed.

“Again, not until they give the signal.” Even if the fight inside looked… just the slightest bit one-sided. Apparently zerg-rushing actually was a valid strategy. No matter how little that seemed to work with the Shadows they faced…

A few cards ventured near the gate. Naoto summoned Sukuna Hikona and hit them with… just about whatever she could think of, apparently. And they all seemed to work… okay, either these cards were really weak, or-

“They’re weak to everything, yes,” Rise confirmed.

“...Rise, what have I told you about reading people’s minds without permission?”

“Right, sorry, but it’s important!”

“Can we go in now?” Chie asked for the seventh time.

“Yes, that’s what I wanted to tell you.”

“Awesome! Let’s do this, guys!” And with that, she leaped into battle, Suzuka Gongen appearing to provide a nice layer of ice for her to speed up on.

“And of course she makes the terrain hard to walk on,” Yosuke complained.

“What do you mean?” Teddie asked, hopping out onto the ice and having no problems whatsoever with the lack of friction.

“...It doesn’t matter….” Well, not to their local ice-element Shadow, anyway. And they could always just have Yukiko melt the ice.

* * *

  
  


“They- they’re a lot stronger than we are…” Junpei realized, looking back at the massacre that the new team had made of the card soldiers. Hamuko couldn’t do anything but nod and stare at the destruction.

Especially the kind caused by Naoto’s Persona. That little thing may have been tiny, but it was also vicious. And was that a Megidola?

“Never mind that!” Yukari interjected, meeting with the rest of them on the other side of the army. “We have something to do here, don’t we?”

“That’s right!” Mitsuru agreed. “Now’s our chance to take on the queen!” With that, they all turned to the Shadow that had summoned all of the FOEs.

“Such annoying pests! Very well… I will crush you all myself! I won’t let you have this!” The Queen of Hearts glared at all of them, her gaze lingering on Zen for just the slightest bit longer than everyone else. “Not even if our king demands it.” She stepped forward, and Hamuko prepared to hit her with as much fire as she could. “What loathsome peasants! I will not hand over my treasure! I refuse!”

“Souji-kun’s group is busy fighting the card soldiers!” Fuuka informed them. “Rise-chan will be backing them up.”

“So, we should take down this one ourselves.” Hamuko had Orpheus throw a large amount of fireballs at the queen. Unfortunately, unlike her foot soldiers, it seemed that she did not have a weakness to everything.

Of course, generally nothing could stand up to the combined force of all of their main Personas, as well as Zen’s magic, without being the slightest bit effected.

The Shadow used her long, ribbonlike arms and bright-colored fan to defend herself from the barrage of attacks. When the dust cleared, the fan was gone, leaving just the disarmed human self standing there.

“How dare you attack me! The Queen herself! What insolence! Such impudence! It’s all so very vulgar of you! Unforgivable!”

“She doesn’t seem interested in moving forward,” Fuuka commented. “But I can confirm that all of your attacks did hurt her!”

A number of the card FOEs, having noticed the commotion behind their ranks, turned to try and rush them. These got to experience the wrath of the weaker-than-everything-but-Orpheus sub-Personas.

Hamuko called up Orpheus again. “Okay, we should be fine if we can just knock her down!”

“That’s your plan?” Zen asked.

“It’s always worked so far… well, on everything with a weakness or that didn’t resist physical skills… or we could just hit her until she goes down, that works too. Actually… do you think she’d notice Koro-chan?”

“With how high up she is?” Yukari checked. “Doubtful.”

“Great! Go get her, boy!” Koromaru barked in agreement, before charging in at the queen.

In any other situation, it would be amusing to see a dog trying to cut at a giant dress with a knife. It was still rather funny now.

Or, well, Hamuko assumed it would be. She was kind of busy keeping the Queen of Hearts distracted with fire. Soon enough, however, those long black arms came out again and swiped at her, knocking her back into the admittedly-dwindling card army. Thankfully, that bit was easily taken care of by Ame-no-Uzume. It turned out that very few things were willing to mess with you when you were throwing Hama spells around, and it was less risky than using Thanatos.

In her distraction with creating dazzling lights, however, the queen had noticed Koromaru, who had started chewing on her dress. Good dog.

“Who are you!?” She demanded of the shiba. “Who do you think you are!?” The arms came down, scooping up Koromaru and throwing him at Ken, who was bowled over.

“Do… you think they’ll be okay…?” Yukari asked. Hamuko shrugged.

“I was unaware that the ‘ballistic dog missile’ Junpei-san suggested to me was actually viable.”

“Junpei, what have you been telling Aigis!?”

“Hey, it was a joke! I was joking!”

“Stop ignoring me!” Their enemy shouted. “I am the Queen! The Queen! My reign is absolute!” She wanted them to stop ignoring her, huh…?

“Everyone, hit her with your strongest attack at once!” In that case, Hamuko would be glad to give her the attention… even if she was still stuck just using Agi.

The results were… not pretty. Burn marks, an arm frozen in ice, the other one still twitching from electricity… black liquid covering just about every inch of her.

“I… I will not hand it over…” She insisted, taking a few faltering steps forward. “The treasure… it is mine… This treasure is… It’s...” Behind her, Hamuko could no longer hear Souji’s group fighting the card soldiers.

“It’s not yours,” Zen stated, a floating ball of ice wreathed by fire and lightning in his hands. “Not anymore.”

No matter how many times Hamuko saw it, she would never get tired of seeing Shadows explode and vanish.

She made sure, ahead of time, to hide the dropped book.

* * *

  
  


“Thanks for your help,” Hamuko smiled, turning to the group of newcomers. “This could have turned out a lot worse.”

“I don’t think you really needed our help,” Souji said. “But thanks anyways.”

“H-how are your Personas so powerful?” Mitsuru asked. Which was a good question.

“Sensei’s really amazing, isn’t he?” Teddie piped up. “...But, Yosuke and the others aren’t that bad, either.”

“You don’t have any right to talk about power right now.” Yosuke turned to the bear. “Come back when you’ve found your resolve.”

“Resolve…?” Aigis paused, before continuing. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, it’s just a thing that happens sometimes where your Persona changes,” Chie shrugged. “I mean, without being like Souji-kun. So, I used to have Tomoe Gozen as my Persona, but then things happened, and now I’ve got Suzuka. Simple!”

“Senpai, it’s not that easy…” Kanji complained. “I keep expectin’ my attacks to be weaker than they actually are, and then I use electricity hot enough for my chair to melt.” ...That sounded painful.

“Well, okay, it’s weird to start out, but… you get used to it. I mean, I only had Tomoe for a couple of months.” No wonder they were so terrifying.

“...But it still probably took some getting used to,” Naoto pointed out. “And, in all likelihood, they will find out about what resolution can do soon enough.”

“I dunno,” Shinjiro commented. “Some of us have been using our Personas for years… but Hamuko’s the only one who’s ever changed hers.”

“As interesting as this talk may be,” Souji started. “I’d really like to go back and check on Nanako. I do trust Margaret, but her siblings…”

“Margaret?” Hamuko asked.

“The one who helps me in the Velvet Room. I think you work with her younger brother?”

“...Yeah, I guess so. Funny, Theo never even mentioned having sisters before today. Given Elizabeth, I can see why he wouldn’t, but… what’s Margaret like, anyway?”

“Cryptic, responsible… basically normal Velvet Room. Unlikely to throw around Megidolaons unless entirely necessary.” Hamuko let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Good. Elizabeth’s attitude wasn’t in the majority.

“Hey, why don’t we not talk about the weird people in blue and just get out of here?” Yosuke suggested.

“It would be nice to be out of here…” Mitsuru mused. Slowly, the rest of them gave their agreement. Well, except for one.

“Before we do… there’s something over there,” Zen reminded them. He strode over to the very back of the room.

“It’s a… box?”

“I speculate that the Shadow we just defeated was protecting this box.” Zen ignored them, simply reaching forward and resting his hand on top of the treasure chest.

“You’re opening it?” Rei asked, sounding far more scared about someone opening a box than anyone had the right to be, unless there was a giant Shadow hiding in it or something. And that would be just ridiculous… even if one had jumped out of a book earlier. At least that made some amount of sense.

“...Yes.” And with that, Zen pried the lid open, revealing that, like the box Hamuko had found that odd stone in, the inside of this one was a swirling white abyss.

Rei’s fears became even more surprising when the box’s contents were revealed: One adorable white rabbit doll, and unlike the pink thing they’d been chasing, it actually had eyes. There was also a nametag on its leg.

“‘Niko’...? I wonder what it means,” Yukari said. Rei stepped closer to Zen, peering at the rabbit.

“Hmm…” She paused, before turning around. “Oh, I know! It must be saying to smile!”

“I don’t know about that…”

“Is this the same rabbit from earlier?” Junpei asked. Hamuko shook her head.

“Of course not. This rabbit is white. And has eyes.”

“...I guess you’re right…”

“Still, it’s like we ended up here by chasing after it… Hey, Zen, Rei. Do you know anything about this rabbit?”

“Nope,” Rei stated, surprisingly quickly.

“I see…”

“Actually…” Zen examined the doll more closely. “I feel like… I’ve seen this somewhere…” Rei turned to him.

“...Zen?” He sighed, and closed his eyes, speaking all the while.

“Four… There are four Labyrinths here… Something is hidden in each one... and there are guardians protecting them. There was something I had to do here… a task I had to accomplish. But I lost my memory…”

“Do you remember now?” Aigis asked.

“...No. This is all I can remember.”

“That is still progress.”

“Aigis, I... don’t think you’re helping,” Hamuko pointed out. “I’m more concerned about the guardians. Sure, there were enough of us to make fighting the queen easier than it should have been, but…” That didn’t mean she wanted to do it again.

“She was protecting this doll,” Zen stated. “And the other guardians… also have something to protect.”

“Could this stuffed animal have triggered your regained memories?” Aigis suggested.

“I think so…” Zen agreed. “When I touched it, the memory surfaced… as though a crack had formed in whatever was keeping it hidden… What about you, Rei? Do you remember anything?”

“I said I don’t know…!”

“I see… Then I will hold onto this stuffed animal.” Hamuko wasn’t entirely sure where Zen put the rabbit. Nor did she particularly care. She thought she’d had enough of rabbits for a while. Still, Rei stared at the place where the doll had been just a bit before.

“That queen Shadow said it wouldn’t let us out of here,” Mitsuru remarked. “...For the time being, perhaps we should think of it like this: There is an unknown party actively keeping us trapped in this world. Zen and Rei were here before us, and the clues to our escape may very well lie within their memories. But to unlock them, we will need to defeat the guardians of the other three Labyrinths.”

“Yes...” Zen nodded. “That unknown party must have hidden my memories within the Labyrinths… But Rei’s memories aren’t returning. Where are they hidden…?” Before the conversation could continue in this vein, a single, chiming sound rang throughout the room.

Akihiko looked up. “It’s that bell again…!”

“We heard it, too,” Souji stated. “Early this morning, for us.”

“Is there some significance to it…?”

“I’m not sure,” Hamuko admitted. “This is the first time that I’m hearing it.” Just as suddenly as it had started, the bell faded away.

“Everyone, listen!” Fuuka spoke up. “A lock on the doors in the Velvet Room is about to come off!”

“What..!? Yamagishi, Kujikawa, explain!”

“Well, you know the doors in the Velvet Room with four locks on them, right?” Rise checked. “Well… we’re standing right next to them, now, and… One of them started shaking pretty strongly. We think that means it’s about to come off!”

“Theo thinks that the doors connect to someplace else!” Fuuka added.

“Which must mean… they’re an exit?” Naoto suggested.

“I-I don’t know… but please come back as soon as you can.”

“Four Labyrinths… and four locks… there must be a connection.”

“That seems pretty likely,” Akihiko agreed. “If we can go through the Labyrinths and retrieve what the guardians are protecting, the locks will come off. And if it gets Zen’s memories back… all the more reason to do this. And if whoever trapped us here doesn’t like our little tour, they might show up to stop us.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…” Hamuko sighed. “We’re just not ready to face something that powerful yet. I don’t care how strong our backup is.”

“But if we could, it’d make things a lot simpler.”

“Akihiko does have a point,” Mitsuru remarked. “Although I agree that it’s not something we’re prepared for.” Well, no. They were prepared for one of their weekly Tartarus runs. Generally, those didn’t involve encountering several things on par with the Reaper. “Well, if that’s settled, I guess it’s time to head back.”

Hamuko sighed. “This is going to be a long walk…”

“Not necessarily,” Souji interjected. “Hey, Teddie. We’ve got a job for you.”

“Right! Everyone, gather around!” The bear instructed, waddling into the middle of the room. This confirmed something Hamuko had been wondering about before- the possibly-a-Shadow’s feet did squeak every time they touched the ground. “Everyone here? Okay, then! Traesto!” And without even summoning a Persona, he called upon a great deal of magic, and Hamuko found herself- and the rest of her friends- transported away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Hamuko's first introduction to Traesto. No, Teddie doesn't need his Persona summoned to use it. Like his television stacks, it's more of a personal utility power. Though, even if it weren't, one might say that being a Shadow is an unfair advantage when it comes to channeling Persona abilities.
> 
>  
> 
> And thus ends You in Wonderland. Next up, the Group Date Cafe, featuring fluff, ships, and Pharos and Nanako forming a cheer squad of two.


	12. Teamwork Unlocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko meets Nanako, Margaret, and Marie. In addition, she gets to see Rise in person for the first time.
> 
> Also, a lock falls off.

When Hamuko found herself outside the Labyrinth from Teddie’s spell, the first thing she was aware of was a small child- even younger than Pharos, most likely.

“Big bro!” The little girl shouted, running forward to hug Souji.

“Hey, Nanako,” The leader of the other team smiled, holding her close. “Have you been good for Miss Margaret and the others?”

“Mm-hm! Rise-chan let me see what her Persona was seeing! It was so cool!”

“Really? I’m glad you had fun.” He ruffled her hair, before standing up again, and turning to the woman wearing all blue that had followed Nanako out. “I guess you’re here to meet the others?”

“For a given definition,” The newest Velvet girl agreed. “Hello, everyone. I am Margaret, Elizabeth and Theodore’s older sister. No need to introduce yourselves- I already know who all of you are.” And wasn’t that just the slightest bit creepy? Even with the knowledge that time travel was involved, it was still weird.

“Welcome back, everyone! You were all really cool in there!” Rise greeted them. Fuuka followed closely behind, as did the Velvet siblings that Hamuko remembered.

“It is good to see that you all have met,” Theo stated. “My sister and your new friends wandered into the Velvet Room earlier, albeit from a… different point of origin.”

“You can just say ‘the future’, you know,” Yosuke said. “We already covered that part.”

“I’m not sure how much the specifics matter, actually,” Hamuko pointed out. “We’re all stuck here together, aren’t we?”

“We did know that something like this would happen,” Rise admitted, “But until September, we didn’t even know there were other Persona Users at all. So meeting so many of you is a bit of a surprise!”

“We never expected to meet such a large group, either,” Mitsuru stated. “I’m wondering, how did you all come by your powers?”

“We fell through a TV,” Kanji explained.

“...What?”

“Yeah, that’s where I come from!” Teddie pitched in… which didn’t really explain anything, beyond maybe ‘so nice Shadows do exist, after all’.

“So, I’ve noticed you’re all wearing the uniforms for this school,” Yukari observed. “Does that mean you go here?”

“Well, not ‘here’, in the normal sense. But we are students at the real Yasogami High. It’s… not that different from this one, honestly.” Souji glanced out the window. “Well, unless you count the clock tower. That one’s new.”

“That’s not the most interesting part,” Elizabeth said. “The fact that two here exist with the power of the Wild Card… perhaps that is the reason behind the boon.”

Yosuke blinked. “The what?”

“Have you gotten any new Personas since you got here?” Hamuko asked. Souji pulled some cards out of his pocket.

“A few. I haven’t had the time to pass them out just yet, though. ...You know, you’re being awfully calm about this.”

“I could say the same for you. Maybe it’s a Wild Card thing? I don’t know, I never thought I’d get the chance to meet another one, Igor said he hadn’t had a Guest for a very long time. We should share notes some time!”

“That’d be nice… even if they won’t help much here.”

“I can’t believe the both of you,” Chie groaned. “This is so nerve-wracking…”

“Just don’t worry about saying anything wrong,” Hamuko suggested. “I know that’s a lot easier said than done, but…”

“You might not want to say that,” Yukiko stated. “Once Chie opens up, she can be… a bit of a handful.”

“Yeah, we kinda figured that from her dramatic entrance,” Junpei shrugged. “Seriously, Hamu-tan’s never done anything like that, and she’s-”

“Junpei, am I going to like what you have to say next?”

“...I’ll just stop talking now.”

Yukari sighed. “You know, sometimes I wonder how you even got a girl to notice you.”

“What? Don’t you have any faith in my charm?”

“Charm? I don’t see any.” Hamuko sighed. Just once, she’d like for the group to go one hour without an argument. Somehow, that didn’t seem to be happening anytime soon.

“I’m really sorry about this…”

“Don’t worry,” Rise said. “After Chie-senpai and Yosuke-senpai, we’re sort of used to it. And Yosuke-senpai and Kanji-kun… and Yosuke-senpai and Teddie… and Teddie and just about anyone but Souji-senpai…”

Hamuko blinked. “Wow. They’re worse than us.”

Nanako giggled. “Souji-nii and his friends are really cool, aren’t they?”

“Nana-chan, you can’t say that yet! I haven’t even shown them my cool trick!” Teddie scolded her. Yosuke groaned.

“It stopped being a cool trick after the first week. That’s just what you are now.”

“How rude! And after all the effort I put in, just so I could get my job as the Junes mascot!”

“I thought you did it so you wouldn’t be lonely anymore?” Souji pointed out. Yukari blinked.

“Um, I’m sort of lost…” She wasn’t the only one. The conversation had rapidly taken a turn for the weird.

“Right!” The cute bear thing turned to them. “You see, once I shed this adorable bearskin…”

“Dude, if you wanna go around as a human, you don’t have to go through the dramatics,” Yosuke told him, grabbing his head, and pulling it off. The rest of the costume, and the boy inside, fell to the floor of the hallway. “We’ve seen it all before.”

“But, Yosuke,” Teddie whined, sitting up and blinking eyes that Hamuko thought were a rather familiar shade of blue, “I wanted it to be a surprise!”

“But the costume’s still his normal form…?”

“I’m just glad it’s not all upperclassmen here…” Kanji sighed. “At least there’s someone here the same age.”

“The same age….?” Rei grinned. “It’s nice to meet you, Kan-chan!”

“Kan-ch…!? R-right.”

“Kanji-san’s internal temperature is on the rise! It’s reaching dangerous levels!” Huh. She didn’t think Aigis would ever have it in her to tease someone like that.

“H-Hell no! You’re lyin’!”

“I’m not sure Aigis can lie, actually,” Hamuko said, finding herself enjoying this far more than she should have. “Or, at least not without being completely obvious. I’m not sure- nobody at school has actually asked if she’s a robot yet.”

“Are you all quite finished?” Margaret asked with a sigh. “I have been waiting, you know. All this time. Quite a while.”

“Sorry about that,” Hamuko apologized. “What were you trying to say?”

“Is she always like this?” Junpei hissed to Souji.

“Not usually. This has just been an odd day.”

“About that Labyrinth earlier… There did not seem to be an exit.”

Theo nodded. “Yes, it seems that the exit is not within the Labyrinths, but rather, inside the Velvet Room.”

“You mean the doors,” Mitsuru stated.

“That is correct. There are four locks, though it seems that one is about to fall- leaving three in total.”

“Three more…”

“According to Zen, there are three more Labyrinths. Let’s assume there’s a connection and find the next one. After all, there is nothing more we can do for the time being.”

“Well, there are a few things…” Hamuko pointed out. “I mean, if you go to the shops, they’ll actually sell you things. ...But that’s more something to do between exploring Labyrinths, anyway.”

Souji adjusted his glasses. “Working with you guys… it’s going to be interesting, huh?”

“Just inviting yourself along, are you, Seta-san?”

“Yuki-senpai, we’re both trapped here. It only makes sense for us to work together until we can get back to our own times.”

“I guess so… but what are you calling me ‘senpai’ for? We’re the same age!” And it just felt weird… all of her friends from school were either second or third years.

Naoto sighed. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Souji-senpai is a naturally polite person… though he does often turn it around into mockery. You shouldn’t let it bother you.”

“...I’ll try.” She didn’t promise anything. “I mean, working together does seem like a good idea… unless anyone here has any objections?”

Everyone else shook their heads, with Mitsuru adding in, “No, it seems perfectly logical.”

“I guess that’s it, then! Welcome aboard, everyone! Let’s all get out of here together!”

_ (Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Fool Arcana...) _

Junpei glanced around. “This makes our little group pretty big all of a sudden, doesn’t it?”

Fuuka giggled. “Yeah. It’s fun seeing so many different types of people, isn’t it?” Personally, Hamuko didn’t think anything could outdo her collection of Social Links, but that probably wasn’t something worth turning into a competition.

Margaret paused. “...Perhaps we should head towards the Velvet Room now. That lock…”

“Yeah, I sort of want to see it come off, too,” Hamuko admitted. If only to make sure there was one less thing that could throw electricity at her. That was as good a reason as any, right?

* * *

  
  


Hamuko’s arrival in the Velvet Room with her friends was preceded by the sound of rattling chains. For a moment, she almost panicked, before remembering that this was the Velvet Room, at there was little to no chance of the Reaper somehow getting inside, even if it was part of this world.

Which she doubted. They’d lingered in the Labyrinth far longer than they ever did in Tartarus, and there wasn’t even the slightest feeling of it.

Not that she was complaining. If they’d had to dodge the Reaper along with everything else, she wasn’t certain that they would have survived.

Instead of SEES’ Tartarus-based arch-nemesis, one of the locks chaining the doors shut was fluttering, as if caught in the breeze. A few moments later, it shattered, the various remnants flying just the slightest bit forward before fading to nothingness, as all things to do with Shadows eventually did.

“What the…?” Hamuko paused at the unfamiliar voice, turning to see a girl with black hair and green eyes enter the Velvet Room. “This… isn’t the limo.”

“Oh? And who might this be?” Elizabeth asked. It was Margaret who replied.

“This is Marie. In my time, she is a resident of the Velvet Room. Marie, please say hello to Elizabeth and Theodore.”

“...Whatever.”

“Wait, Marie-chan works here!?” Chie exclaimed. “Since when!?”

Souji shrugged. “As far as I can tell, she got the job just after I came to Inaba.”

“I’m not really a resident… I just live here.”

“Do you think we should tell her those are basically the same thing?” Yosuke asked. Souji shook his head.

“Now isn’t the time for that.”

“What’s going on, anyway?” Marie asked. “There’s far too many people here, I was just out for an hour. ...The dog’s cool, though.”

Hamuko nodded. “Koromaru is the best dog. Right, boy?”

“Arf!”

“Marie, the people you don’t recognize are SEES, a group of Persona Users from two years ago led by Yuki Hamuko and Kirijo Mitsuru. Please, try to help them however you can. Or, failing that, why not work on those poems you enjoy so much?”

“P-Poems? What poems? ...And how do you know about them?”

“What’re these… poems?” Rei asked around a mouthful of donut. Hamuko still wasn’t sure where she was getting that stuff from.

“They’re not poems. They’re the screams of my pathos.”

“Pathos…! Zen, Zen! This ‘pathos’ is so cool!”

“...Is that so?”

Rei glanced at her now-empty hand, before gasping. “What should I do!? That donut I just swallowed was tasty!”

“I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.”

“Well, with you here, I suppose I will have more spare time. That means I can...” Hamuko didn’t like the sound of that. Anything giving Elizabeth more freedom was a bad idea.

“Can do what, Elizabeth?” Theo asked.

“...It’s nothing. Just something that’s been bothering me. I can handle it on my own.”

“If you say so…”

Margaret, looking at her siblings, sighed. “The three of us have a great deal to discuss, it seems…”

“Oh?” Theo turned to her. “Such as what?”

She paused, before shaking her head. “...No, this isn’t a good time for that. Maybe… maybe later. For now, learning about this world is more important.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Very well. Perhaps another time.” With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

Not even fifteen minutes later, Hamuko’s fears about what would happen if the middle sibling had free time were realized when she peered into the nurse’s office and found it decorated with pink and Frosts, as well as several streamers.

* * *

  
  


“You know,” Rise started, “I’m pretty sure the Shadows won’t come out of the Labyrinth. So I don’t think there’s any harm in checking out the Culture Festival between trips, right? I bet it’d be tons of fun with all of us!”

“I agree! I wanna enjoy the festival with everyone!” Teddie cheered.

“The one back home did get canceled…” Junpei mused. “Hey, Hamu-tan, that sounds good, right?”

“Well, after the last Labyrinth trip, I’m not in much hurry to go on another…” She admitted. “And after fighting all those Shadows, we have money to spare.” It turned out that golden hands were very easy to catch when they were just as desperate to avoid the cards as you were.

Mitsuru sighed. “Honestly, now isn’t the time for such things…”

“B-but Senpai-!”

“Yuki, where did you put this week’s funds?”

“...Personas and takoyaki…” Okay, so she could sort of see her point… “But the festival!”

“I actually don’t think that’s a bad idea,” Shinjiro said. “I mean, if a Persona’s your strength of heart, then isn’t it important to keep your spirits up?”

“That’s what you say now,” Junpei started, “But could it be that you like festivals too, Shinjiro-senpai?”

“Really, Shinji? Alright, then let’s go conquer the food stands! We’ll start with the takoyaki!”

“...Go by yourself.”

Chie perked up. “Oh, takoyaki sounds good! I’ll go!”

Hamuko found herself laughing. “Sorry, Mitsuru-senpai, but it looks like you’re outvoted. Say, have you ever had corn dogs before?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Quick question. Nobody minds if they just spend a chapter messing around the festival, right?
> 
> Hamuko does not like it when Souji calls her 'senpai'. So, naturally, he's going to call her that all the time now. (He's never going to stop.)
> 
> One day, she will get better with money. That day is probably not today.


	13. Why You Don't Let A Bunch of Kids With Superpowers Loose on Your Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After completing You in Wonderland, the Persona Users decide to have some fun at the festival. This rapidly spirals out of control.
> 
> A few stands may or may not be destroyed by the end.

There were many things that a person would never want to see at a festival, particularly not one they were visiting.

“Okay, so we need you to judge this.”

Such as people with magical powers abusing them for fun and profit- mostly fun, but Hamuko was pretty sure she’d seen money being exchanged at some point. She wouldn’t know- she wasn’t really the gambling type.

“What makes you think I’m qualified?” Yukari asked, glancing at the two competitors and their towering cones of ice cream, with flavors ranging from steak to smelt. Yosuke shrugged.

“Well, you’re not Zen, and you don’t really know Chie. And we don’t really have a lot of options here, but you seem fairly sensible.”

Hamuko nodded. “I mean, unless you want to get a Velvet resident over here…” They all paused to imagine how that would go, just as Elizabeth passed them on the way to the shooting gallery.

They rapidly came to the consensus that that would probably be a bad idea. And, therefore, that it would probably be a good idea for Yukari to judge.

“Can we get started already…?” Rei asked, hungrily eyeing her stack of frozen dairy product. “I’m hungry!”

“You’re always hungry,” Yukari pointed out. Hamuko shrugged.

“Still, they may as well get started… if only because, otherwise, it’ll start to melt and they’ll be wasting good ice cream.”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

* * *

  
  


Nanako glanced over in the direction of the ice cream stand, where two girls seemed close to passing out- Rei from brain freeze, Chie from too much ice cream. “Do you think they’ll be okay?” She asked.

Ken shrugged. “Rei-san eats a lot of things. Not all of them are food. And you’re the one who knows Satonaka-san… though she does have ice magic...”

The two of them paused for a moment, in order to properly consider the insanity that was their lives- Ken more so than Nanako.

Until the day she received a proper explanation, Nanako would use that moment of dawning comprehension as an excuse for how neither of them noticed the approach of a third kid. And, even afterwards, she would deny experiencing any kind of shock. She would be lying.

“Hello. You are Amada Ken and Dojima Nanako, correct?” They both turned in surprise, to see a boy somewhere between them in age, with pitch-black hair and bright blue eyes- blue like Teddie’s.

“Y-Yeah…” Ken answered, being the first one to find his voice again. “But… who are you, anyway? And how did you get here?”

“O-oh… right. My name’s Pharos. I- I’m here because Hamuko’s here.” The boy tried to smile, but… it didn’t seem quite right.

“What do you mean?” Nanako found herself asking. It was strange, but this boy, despite not doing anything outwardly wrong, unnerved her. Maybe it was because of where they were. Neither of them recognized him, and just about nobody in this place was fully real, so of course he was something to be wary of.

“I’m not really sure how to explain it… I go where she goes, but we don’t talk as much as I’d like to. I don’t… really talk with anyone. This is the first time that I’ve actually had the chance.” So he was lonely?

“Really? Don’t you have any friends?” A bit scary or not, everyone needed a friend. Yet Pharos still shook his head, his voice quiet.

“No, I- I’ve never had the chance to. Unless you count Hamuko, but she’s only just accepted that I’m not a hallucination.”

“Hamuko-san thought that?” Ken asked. “Why would that ever happen?”

“That, well…” Pharos trailed off, not even trying to make eye contact anymore. “...I’m not really good with people. I just woke up at the start of this year, and… things happened. I didn’t think I needed to be bothered, but… the two of you seem about my age, and…” There was an explosion from a nearby hallway. The three of them turned to face that direction.

“Didn’t Elizabeth-san just go that way?” Ken checked. The other two nodded.

And, somehow, that was enough for all thoughts of Pharos being strange to disappear from Nanako’s mind.

* * *

  
  


Souji stared at the smoking wreckage that used to be the shooting gallery, unsure if he should be horrified or amused. “What… happened here?”

Naoto sighed, drawing her hat down over her eyes. “Well, at first, I’d like to think I was doing rather well, but then Aigis-san and Elizabeth-san arrived. Aigis-san put in all the bullet holes, while Elizabeth-san…” She trailed off, as if unwilling to admit that there was now an actual crater in Yasogami High. He didn’t blame her.

“Okay, yeah, that explains it,” He sighed, wondering if taking off his glasses would make all of this go away… wait, there wasn’t any fog… damn it. “Nanako’s not going to be happy about this… she loves these kinds of games.”

The detective princess gave the ruins an appraising look. “Well, it may not be that bad. At the very least, it should be possible to construct a replacement…. using ice, if need be.”

“Are you volunteering?” Souji asked. It certainly wouldn’t be outside her capabilities.

“...No, I was just thinking to myself. Besides, there’s a craft workshop just beyond that corner. That is much more likely to last.” At this point, he wasn’t certain if Naoto was making actual suggestions or just trying to annoy him.

Honestly, if it was the latter, he probably did deserve it.

* * *

  
  


Hamuko wasn’t sure why she was surprised to see Pharos with Ken and Nanako. After all, a kid that small needed playmates, right? She hadn’t really had any at that age, but she’d be the first to admit that her childhood wasn’t exactly conventional, citing incidents such as the time she’d run over a Maya on roller skates. That had been a much weirder night than usual.

Still, it seemed almost wrong to her. Pharos had always been just a mysterious child that showed up to warn her about the full moons, as though she didn’t have a perfectly functional lunar calendar. The idea that he could have friends was… difficult for her to accept.

...Maybe that was why her Social Link with him was taking so long to progress. Well, if she knew what the problem was, she could at least try to fix it at some point, though she wasn’t even sure where to begin on that. Not all kids were Maiko.

“Oh, Hamuko!” Pharos called, and she turned to face him directly. He was grinning widely, which… really didn’t help him to look less creepy. He was cute, yes, but there was just something strange about a brightly smiling possibly-a-Shadow. “Look! I have friends now!”

“...So does that mean I’ll be able to sleep now?” She found herself asking.

“...You could at least try and be happy for me…” He pouted. Which was even weirder. Possibly-Shadow kids really shouldn’t pout.

“...Right. So you actually do know Hamuko-san…” Ken muttered. Despite Pharos’ cheerful introduction, he still seemed a bit suspicious of the younger boy. Hamuko didn’t blame him. Random-kid-out-of-nowhere took some getting used to.

Oh, well. They could handle themselves. Or, at least, Ken could handle himself, and Nanako as well. He was, after all, more of an adult than anyone there.

Now that was a scary thought.

* * *

  
  


Infatuation, Shinjiro decided, was by far the most irritating experience that he’d suffered to date. Not the feeling itself- at least, he didn’t let it bother him too much, and there were far worse girls he could like- but because he’d made the mistake of mentioning it once to Aki. Aki, who probably wouldn’t recognize a crush of his own even if the object of his affections walked up behind him and hit him on the head with a stick, had somehow decided that this was a big deal.

So now Shinjiro was faced with a difficult choice. To pay attention- which would encourage Aki- to leave- which would annoy Aki- or to take relationship advice from someone as far from qualified as it was possible to get- and he didn’t even plan on asking Hamuko out in the first place!

He could also just throw his takoyaki at him. That might get him to shut up.

“...And, yeah, if neither of you manages to get it together by my birthday, I’m locking the two of you in a closet.” ...Okay, that probably merited his attention.

“Your birthday is literally two days from now. And why the hell do you care, anyway?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Shinjiro thought he might have had quite a few answers to that, but he was too busy fighting the urge to pelt his pseudo-twin with takoyaki. So far, the urge seemed to be winning.

“Aki, you wouldn’t know romance if it bit you on the ass. If you’re going to try and involve yourself in my love life, fix that first.”

“Hey, I can tell you and Hamuko like each other, can’t I?”

“Hamuko’s crush is so obvious you can see it from space, and I actually told you about mine!”

“Actually, I figured it out when you actually wore that tux she gave you, but that works too.” And that was when he threw the takoyaki.

* * *

  
  


“You know, Hamu-tan, I’ve been wondering something,” Junpei said.

“What is it?”

“What exactly do you keep in that bag of yours, anyway? Besides the stuff you were talking about earlier.”

“That- that’s actually a good question,” She admitted. “Let’s see… Alicorn, Frost Cap, Ring of Serenity, a few dozen Narcissus Flowers, Indigo Cape, Lightning Armlet, Blazing Flame… Ring of Darkness?” That was a new one.

“How does that all fit in there!?”

“You know what? I have no clue. ...Hey, want a cool hat?”

Yukari glanced at Hamuko. “That pun was bad and you should feel bad.”

“Right, sorry…” She paused, and glanced down the hall. “Is it just me, or is there a lot more commotion than there was a minute ago?”

“You might want to come down here,” Rise broadcast. “There’s actually a pretty intense food fight going on right now.”

“...Okay, this I’ve gotta see.”

* * *

  
  


“All in agreement never to do that again?” Souji suggested, gazing over the complete wreckages of the tables, the takoyaki booth, and several ceiling tiles.

“That is dependant on several factors,” Aigis pointed out. “But it would likely be extremely difficult to recreate this when the damage has already been done.”

“How did it even get this bad?” Yukari asked. “All I saw was flying takoyaki.”

“I’m not really sure,” Rise admitted. “I just passed by, and- oh, don’t step there! There’s ice.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me,” Hamuko admitted, glancing over in the direction that Mitsuru had dragged off the ones that started the chaos. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”

“Worst case, we can always thaw them out later.”

“Well, yeah, but if she wanted to get us into the Labyrinths faster… maybe she shouldn’t try giving our teammates hypothermia.” Souji found that idea absolutely terrifying. How, when he’d met Ken back in September, had that kid seemed so well adjusted?

Then again, he really couldn’t talk, given that he was probably at least partially responsible for Teddie being… Teddie. Maybe it was just a thing for Persona Users.

“Hey, what happened to the takoyaki?” The rest of the gathering turned to see Rei, staring at the wreckage almost sadly.

“It sort of…” Yukari trailed off, clearly thinking about what to say. “...Broke.”

Rei pouted, and the area around them was lit up in a flash of blinding light. Once Souji could see again, the area was back to the way it was before.

None of this made any sense, and he was perfectly fine with it staying that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Souji probably has the right idea, at least if he wants to end this with any semblance of sanity remaining intact.
> 
> I like the idea of Hamuko randomly stumbling into large amounts of power that she really should not have by this point. As for the Narcissus Flowers... after the Lovers fight, she got just the slightest bit paranoid. To the point that just about everyone she knows has one tucked away somewhere.


	14. Getting to Know Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The combined team has to come a number of decisions, some very important... others not so much. In addition, they start looking around, and investigating the world they've found themselves in.
> 
> Admittedly, some of these connections should probably have been made a long time ago.

“Hey, Seta-san, I was wondering…” Souji turned to Hamuko.

“What is it, Yuki-senpai?”

“Well, first of all, you can stop calling me that any time now. Second… could you try and teach Junpei to use a sword like you do?”

“What’s wrong with how he uses his sword?” He didn’t see how they’d have survived for this long if he was really bad at it.

“He treats it like a baseball bat.” That, on the other hand…

“I’ll consider it.” At the very least, it couldn’t be worse than working with Chie… particularly as long as they wouldn’t be sparring. He was pretty sure that, were it not for Dia, he’d still have bruises from the last session.

“Um… Big bro?” Nanako approached them quietly.

“What is it?”

“Yosuke wants to show off his knife tricks on the roof… do you think that’s a good idea?” Well, it was less likely to get them arrested than it was back in reality, but…

“I wouldn’t let him do that, if I were you,” Hamuko warned him. “You wouldn’t believe the kinds of bad habits I’ve been trying to train Junpei out of.”

“Actually, I think I do. He’s your Magician, right? Probably just comes with the Arcana.”

“...Wouldn’t that make about a twentieth of the population total idiots?”

“You don’t watch a lot of television, do you?”

“Can’t. Too busy.” She paused. “Hey, Nanako-chan… you were with Pharos and Ken-kun earlier, right?”

“Yeah. I’m heading back to them soon. I just wanted to make sure Yosuke will be okay.”

“He will be… once I’m through convincing him to be less of an idiot.” And maybe he could look on teaching Iori how to actually use a sword later.

He wouldn’t stop calling Hamuko ‘senpai’, though. Her reaction was way too perfect to give up.

* * *

  
  


Pharos was pretty sure, at this point, that he was actually getting pretty good at this whole ‘human interaction’ thing, at least in the sense that he hadn’t gotten any funny looks in the past fifteen minutes. A low bar to clear, true, but it was a good starting point.

Not that he really spoke to anyone, asides from Ken and Nanako, but it was a start. And he knew Hamuko rather well, and had been introduced to some of her friends, so it was starting to actually look pretty good.

So he let himself think that everything was fine, and that he was learning how to pass himself off as human fairly well, when a squeaking sound approached him. He was alone at the moment, as Ken was scouting out the nearby food areas and Nanako was still trying to get Souji to keep Yosuke from doing anything stupid. At least, she was the last time he’d checked.

The fact was, whenever he’d introduced himself to someone before, he had some sort of experience to rely on, even if it wasn’t his, but the bear that was currently sniffing at him defied all human logic.

Given what he was, that was strangely fitting.

“You smell like a Shadow,” Teddie told him, sounding on edge, though his eyes said something different.

They carried some amount of hope. A desire for more like himself, perhaps?

“I do,” Pharos replied, pretending that the thought of potentially being such didn’t bother him. “And you are one.”

“Huh? What do you mean? I’m just your average everyday bear!” He wasn’t sure why the strange creature had panicked at his words. It was the truth, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t like he’d be able to hide it, in a team with a handful of sensors on it.

“Well, I have never seen a bear before…” He admitted. Not in person, anyway. Hamuko had a few books with pictures in them, and most looked little to nothing like Teddie. But if that was what he wanted to call himself, Pharos wouldn’t try to stop him.

After all, he wasn’t the only one with occasional fears regarding his identity.

* * *

  
  


“You know, I’ve been wondering… how can one Culture Festival have so many food booths?” Not that Hamuko was complaining- it was tasty, and for some reason, she never seemed to get full. But the sheer number and variety of the food booths… it was something to be recorded for the ages.

Nobody responded to her question, though Mitsuru looked up from the corndog she’d finally been convinced to try. “Oh, Yuki. This is a discussion that I feel you should be a part of.”

“What is it?”

“I thought that communication between us would be easier if we had names for each of our teams.”

“But… don’t we already have that? I mean, we’re SEES, they’re the Investigation Team.”

“Well, yes,” Yukiko agreed. “But that wouldn’t be as fun, now, was it?”

“Yukiko-senpai, I get that you and Souji-senpai are a thing, but that doesn’t mean you gotta act like him…” Kanji pointed out.

“Actually, I think that’s just her being Yukiko,” Chie shrugged. “But calling ourselves the Investigation Team is kind of a mouthful. I wouldn’t mind changing it.”

“We could try using our school names,” Akihiko suggested. “We’re from Gekkoukan High. And you guys are from Yasogami, right?”

“That doesn’t sound much shorter…” Ken mused. Nanako nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, it is still kinda long… what do you think, Pharos-kun?” Pharos was currently eating a corndog. “...Never mind.”

Hamuko sighed. “Please don’t tell me you paid for that with money from my wallet.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.” Of course he did.

“Pharos…”

Akihiko seemed unfazed. “Well, we could abbreviate it. Some people call our school ‘Gekkou High’ for short.”

Chie blinked. “You know, that actually sounds pretty cool. And some people call our school ‘Yaso High’.”

Ken paused. “So… Team Gekkou and Team Yaso? Yeah, I think I can remember that!”

“Sounds practical,” Hamuko agreed. “But we’ll need to tell others about the decision. Like Seta-san… do you think he managed to get Hanamura to stop playing with his knives yet?”

“Hanamura-san’s odds of stabbing himself- or anyone else- have dramatically decreased,” Pharos volunteered.

“I’ll take that as a yes…”

* * *

  
  


...Was there no hallway in this school that didn’t have at least one food stand? This one was called ‘Sweets Hell’... Hamuko thought she could do better.

Rise turned and glanced up. “Oh, it’s Hamuko-senpai. C’mon over!” Well, it was better than Souji, at least… And she was actually younger than her.

“Hamuko-chan,” Fuuka greeted her. “Rise-chan and I were just comparing our abilities.”

“These abilities are very interesting,” Zen said. “They can’t attack Shadows, but their Personas allow them to provide their allies with information.”

“Too bad we can’t tell the layout of the Labyrinths, though,” Rise sighed.

“Is there a difference between the two of you when it comes to your abilities?” Zen asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Hamuko found herself telling him. “Mitsuru-senpai can sense things too, though she’s not as good at it as Fuuka-chan is. And everyone’s Personas are different, so…”

“That’s true,” Fuuka agreed. “There are some differences between us. From what I can see, I have more of a focus on range and healing, while Rise-chan can increase others’ abilities.”

“That… actually sounds pretty useful.” Especially since she couldn’t just bring out a Persona with Masukukaja or the like at the moment. “I’ll be relying on the both of you.”

“I’m back!” Huh. She hadn’t seen Rei since the takoyaki incident. “Oooh… ohagi, mitarashi dango… this really is paradise! I’m gonna have some! What about you, leader?”

Hamuko shrugged it off. “I just got here.”

“Oh, I see. ...Wait…! Zen, were you here with just these three!?”

Zen nodded. “That’s right. Is there a problem?”

“H-huh… I see…”

“Um… Rei-chan?” Rise paused, before saying, “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Definitely not,” Fuuka agreed. “The two of us weren’t doing anything, and Hamuko-chan…”

“Do not. Say. A word.” Would it be wrong to subject the sensors to Thanatos? She concluded that it probably was.

“What are you talking about!? It’s not like I was thinking about how nice it would be to eat rice cakes with Zen or anything, honest!” Well, if there was any bright side to this… it was that she and Rei were both equally hopeless.

“Then you don’t want these?” Zen asked. “I had brought rice cakes for you.”

“Zen…”

“Did you want anmitsu instead?”

“...I want both!”

“I’m happy for you, Rei-chan,” Fuuka said, before turning to Hamuko. “Hamuko-chan, you know you don’t have to be jealous, right? I’m sure Shinjiro-senpai would be willing to go out with you if you just asked.”

Hamuko reminded herself, once again, that subjecting the sensors to Thanatos would be wrong, while also hiding her face in her hands. “I’m sure I’ll get around to it…” She mumbled. “...Eventually...”

Fuuka and Rise just laughed. Traitors.

* * *

  
  


“How did I end up in this situation…?” Souji sighed, snatching some chopsticks from Teddie. Oh, right, because Hamuko had been quick to take Zen’s side in their little Trading Showdown, and somebody needed to make sure Teddie didn’t do anything too stupid.

He wasn’t even going to try for a win. It was clear as day that Rei was far too smitten with Zen to choose anyone else over him.

“Don’t worry, Souji-nii!” Nanako tried to cheer him on. “I know you can do it!” Oh, yes, and Nanako had thought it would be fun. One of these days, he needed to learn how to say no to her.

“I’m not even sure if I want to do it…” He admitted. “...Come on, Teddie. I think I saw Aigis break her own chopsticks earlier…”

Not that it mattered, in the end, because Zen and Hamuko had somehow finagled their way into a parfait the size of Koromaru. Because of course they did.

Something told Souji that working with this new Wild Card was going to be one of the most interesting events on his life… even counting the Midnight Channel. This could not be a good sign.

* * *

  
  


“W-we ended up enjoying ourselves…” Mitsuru admitted, in front of the door to the Velvet Room, “But I believe it’s about time we headed to the next Labyrinth.”

“Do we know where it is?” Akihiko asked. Fuuka nodded.

“Yes, we scanned for it earlier. It’s the second year class 2 room.” Immediately, the second years from Yasogami all stiffened.

“Class two? Are you sure?” Yosuke checked.

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“That’s our class! Please tell me it’s not another group date cafe...”

Hamuko paused. “Group date cafe? I can’t say I’ve ever been to one of those…” Mostly because she’d never even been on a normal date before…

Yukiko nodded. “Yes, that was our class’s display. It didn’t catch on, for some reason…” Chie turned to her.

“Wait… don’t tell me you voted for it, too!”

“Well, Souji-kun was voting for it, and it sounded funny.”

“Like I said, Yosuke… this is why you don’t give joke options.”

“Yeah, I get it now!”

“...I take it it wasn’t that fun?” Mitsuru asked. Kanji just groaned.

“I don’t wanna think about it…”

“What’s this group date thing?” Rei, the last to arrive, walked up, snacking on a corndog.

“A group date is the crossroads of destiny…” Teddie began. Hamuko turned to Aigis, Nanako, and Pharos.

“Do I even have to tell you not to listen to this?”

Nanako laughed. “Teddie’s funny!”

“Aww… But I was being serious, Nana-chan!”

“It’s not like this is going to matter, though, right?” Yukari pointed out. “And it’s not like he managed to get on the red string of fate bit, either.”

“Red string…?” Rei paused. “Um, Leader, when she says red string…”

“It’s an old story,” Hamuko explained, pausing to think of the right way to put it. “It’s like, there’s this invisible string around your finger, and it connects to the person you’re meant to be with. Given that it’s invisible, I’m not sure why they say it’s red, but…”

“Is it real?”

“I don’t know…” Yukiko admitted. “But I think we all want to believe that it is.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Souji said. “I mean, there’s no strings attached with us, right, Yukiko?”

“...Partner, I think you’ve been spending too much time with Teddie,” Yosuke told him.

“Well, I’m sure it exists!” Rei declared. “...Right, Zen?”

“You’re… going to eat string now?”

“That’s not what I meant!” Meanwhile, Chie wandered towards the window.

“Huh… It’s still not noon yet. I guess it really is stopped.”

“...What are you talking about?” Yukari asked.

“The clock tower outside. It’s been the same since we got here.”

“No, it’s moving,” Zen told her. “It’s just very slow.”

“Oh, I see. But if it’s that slow, the time still can’t be right.” Chie glanced at Ken. “But then again… Time travel is weird.” Hamuko found herself agreeing.

“...Could we take a closer look at it?” Naoto asked.

“Piquing your ace detective instincts?”

“Not necessarily, but…”

“Ace detective?”

* * *

  
  


They ended up going to the clock tower either way. It stretched higher than most of the school building, white brick and a silver bell.

“A clock tower in the center of the schoolyard…” Aigis began. “Would that not be considered obtrusive?”

“I’m more interested in how it’s maintained,” Naoto admitted. “There’s no door that would lead inside.”

“Could its mechanism be inaccurate due to a lack of maintenance?” The robot suggested.

“Thing is, we never had anything like this at our Yasogami,” Yosuke said.

“...Really?”

“Well, there used to be one,” Naoto replied. “But it was rather small, and ended up being demolished years ago, even in your time.”

“Yeah, I think I would have remembered seeing one if it was there when I went to Inaba,” Hamuko found herself agreeing. Next to her, Yukiko paused.

“Oh, I was wondering why you looked so familiar… you were on the tennis team that came to stay at the inn a couple of years ago.”

“...You remember that?” She asked, honestly surprised.

“Yes, you were the one wielding your equipment like it was a deadly weapon. You… don’t normally do that, right?”

“Are you kidding? If I brought tennis balls to Tartarus, and lost them, Rio-chan would kill me!”

Shinjiro sighed. “Of course that’s her only level of restraint…”

“It could be a valid tactic,” Naoto pointed out. “After all, there’s little use for common sense in a place where Shadows roam.”

“You haven’t had your Persona for that long,” Chie reminded the first year. “But this place is different from what we’re used to. We didn’t go into a TV, we don’t need our glasses to see no matter what Souji-kun thinks…”

“TV?” Junpei paused. “Wait… that’s not the first time you’ve said something like that. What are you talking about?”

“That’s how we fight the Shadows,” Yosuke explained. “We found it by accident, of course… But our time doesn’t have the Dark Hour anymore, so we can’t just wait for them to come to us like you do.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Hamuko noted. “You don’t have to worry about what phase the moon is in.” Not that she’d been able to feel safe on full moons even before coming to Iwatodai. It was probably something about the Dark Hour. “But what made you decide to fight Shadows, anyway?” It didn’t sound like the kind of career choice someone would just happen upon.

“We’re looking for a killer,” Souji stated. “At first it was just a couple of deaths, but then the kidnappings started…. and the copycat. And since the guy just has to push someone into the television… we could be at this for a while. But… there are benefits, such as meeting Teddie here.”

The little blue bear nodded. “I never thought of leaving my world, before Sensei, Yosuke, and the others came. But now that I have, I’m glad I did. If anything, I wish I’d done it much sooner! The human world is just so much fun!”

“It’s not like we don’t have anything to worry about, even without full moons,” Yosuke said. “If someone’s in the TV on a foggy day, their own Shadow will attack and kill them. So it’s not like we can just sit around… if only because that seems to be our recruitment drive.”

Souji sighed. “Again, it’s not my fault I’m the only one that had a Persona to start with. It just happened.”

“None of that matters right now, though,” Naoto pointed out. “This is neither the TV world or Tartarus, after all. We know almost nothing about this place. Therefore, we should focus on learning how this world works. Let’s head towards the next Labyrinth.”

* * *

  
  


“...How did I not see this before?” Hamuko asked, reaching forward to catch a falling rose petal in her hand. Like most things to do with Shadows, it dissolved upon coming into contact with her.

“Why’d they have to drag out such bad memories!?” Yosuke complained.

“Let’s get on with it,” Shinjiro stated. “There’s three big ones left, right?”

“That should be the case,” Zen agreed. “And it is also possible that I will regain my memories.”

“If Zen-kun’s memories return, we may be able to learn something about this world,” Fuuka suggested.

“Okay, let’s get going.” Hamuko turned towards the Labyrinth, only to pause at a small telepathic blip. “Hm? What is it, Mitsuru-senpai?”

“There’s something important to figure out,” Mitsuru told her. “Since we are fighting as a combined unit, we should decide who our main leader will be.”

Nearby, Junpei grinned. “Oh, is this my chance!?”

“Our most reasonable candidates would be either of our current leaders.”

“Yeah, thought not…”

“Yuki. What do you think?”

“I mean, I never asked to be leader in the first place,” She pointed out. “You just… shoved me in charge because Akihiko-senpai was hurt, and then I ended up still doing it months later. I’m not sure this is the job for me, really…”

“I never asked to lead, either,” Souji said. “Partner, Chie, and Teddie just sort of shoved me into it. It’s not like either of us ever had a choice in the matter.”

“Senpai’s group did meet Zen-kun and Rei-chan first,” Chie admitted. “So maybe Souji-kun’s right, and Senpai should lead?”

Souji turned to her. “Hey, I never said that!”

“It sure sounded like it.”

“It would probably be easier on her than on you, Souji-senpai,” Naoto stated. “She’s used to a bigger group to start with. I am sure that she will be a competent leader.”

“...No, seriously, don’t I get any say in this?”

Shinjiro sighed. “Welcome to my world…”

Souji groaned. “So I’m going from a leader to a follower now?”

“Well, you probably do work well with your team…” Hamuko mused. She had to reduce her workload somehow. “....I know! You can be our vice leader!”

“...Somehow, that’s even worse.”

“Sorry, Vice Leader! No take backs!”

“H-Hey! Yuki-senpai, don’t call me that!”

“Don’t call me senpai, then!” Yes… revenge was hers.

That this was something Thanatos would endorse never even came to mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I get that this is Rei's place, I really do, but... does everything have to be food-related? She can already pull donuts and takoyaki out of nowhere...
> 
> ...And so Hamuko gets her payback for Souji's insistence upon annoying politeness. If they ever address each other as anything different... it won't be for a long, long time.


	15. Group Date, Ho!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hamuko leads her team into the Group Date Cafe Labyrinth for the very first time, following some very important preparations. Well, she says they're important, anyway.
> 
> The combined team tries to make progress, but gets sidetracked by a conversation. This is likely the start of a trend.

Glancing up to the entrance of the new Labyrinth, Hamuko felt the need to ask, “So, do you think anything in there will be able to cast Charm spells?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Akihiko shrugged. Ken just looked confused.

“What’s a Charm spell?”

“Something I gave you those flowers to prevent,” She explained, tapping the angel’s tears woven into the lining of his hoodie. “I’ve got a lot more in my bag, too- I might have to pass them out. They tend to look different from each other, but don’t worry, they work.”

“Can I have some?” Nanako asked. And, well, Hamuko couldn’t say no to such a cute face.

“Sure. Hey, Vice Leader, what’s her Arcana?”

“I said not to call me that! And it’s Justice.”

“Right. Then you get angel’s tears, like Ken does.” With that, she pulled out some of the odd yellow flowers. A lot of narcissi looked about the same, but there were exceptions. “Anyone else?”

“Um… I don’t think I need them. They’re like these, right?” Rei checked, pulling one of many flowers out of her hair.  _ Narcissus obsoletus _ , if Hamuko was remembering correctly. And like the younger girl said, there was an anti-Charm enchantment powerful enough to register even to a normal human, marking it as a magical Narcissus Flower.

“...Yeah. Yeah, they are. Where did you get these?”

“I dunno. They were just there when I woke up.”

“Um… can I have a flower?” Pharos asked. “I know I don’t really fight with you, but…”

“...I mean, even with Vice Leader’s friends here, I do have extra. Any requests?”

“...Could I have one like the one you wear?” She paused, her fingers slipping over to her personal  _ narcissus poeticus _ , tucked into a hairpin for easier access. There was another one, a spare in case her current flower got lost. She could easily give it up.

“Here you go.” Pharos happily took the accessory, tucking it away into… somewhere, where it vanished. Probably wherever her contract went.

“Thank you. I promise, I’ll take good care of it.” Hamuko nodded, and started selecting some other flowers from her bag.

“Of course you will. Everyone else who doesn’t have one of these already, gather around. It should prevent you from being Charmed and turned against us. I’ve even got the perfect species picked out!”

Once everyone had a flower tucked away somewhere, Souji turned to her. “So, shall we be going?”

“I guess so. Even if it’ll be a long walk… hey, can the bear repeat whatever he did earlier?”

“Traesto? Yeah, it’s some of his personal magic. Transport’s what he’s best at, after all.”

“Oh, good, so we don’t have to do this all at once…” She sighed. That would be helpful.

“We’ll be supporting you all from the Velvet Room,” Rise said. “Come on, Fuuka-senpai, Nanako-chan.”

“Can I see through your Persona again, Rise-chan?” Nanako asked.

“A-actually…” Fuuka spoke up, “I think Lucia might actually be better for that.” Rise turned to her.

“Oh, because of the bubble? Yeah, that makes sense.” The three girls walked off. Pharos looked like he was considering something, before he vanished. Hamuko hoped that didn’t end too weirdly.

“Zen…”

“Are you scared?” Zen asked Rei. It took a few moments for her to answer.

“I-I’ll be okay… I can do this! I’m gonna go back with everyone.”

Teddie hopped forward, towards the entrance of the Labyrinth. “Okay, Rei-chan, repeat after me. Group date, ho!”

“G-Group date, ho!” And that was how they all entered the Labyrinth known as the ‘Group Date Cafe’.

* * *

  
  


This new Labyrinth was… very pink. Like something a little girl would use to decorate her room with, and become horrifically embarrassed by by the age of seven. Hamuko may or may not have been going off of experience there.

“Huh?” Yosuke looked up, staring at the starry ceiling. “This doesn’t look quite like the actual Group Date Cafe.”

“This is… kinda cute,” Kanji stated. Yukari stared at him, and he turned defensively. “Wh-what!?”

Souji sighed. “Kanji, we had this talk just last week. That’s why you don’t have Take-Mikazuchi anymore, remember?”

“Still…” Yukari paused. “I’m just surprised he called it cute. This is a little girly, even for me.” Yosuke shrugged, an odd grin on his face.

“Well, this guy does have the most girl power out of all of us. Not that that’s saying much…” Chie stomped on his foot. “Ow!”

“You deserved that…” She muttered.

“So… girl power?” Yukari asked. “You mean like… cooking and sewing and all that jazz?”

“Um, yeah, I’m good at ‘em.”

“He is more of a girl than Yukari-san,” Aigis said. Hamuko winced. In no way was that going to end well.

“Hey, I can do normal girl stuff too!”

“Normal girl stuff, huh?” Yosuke turned back to Chie.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“Knock it off, you two,” Kanji groaned. “And I’ve got the most man power and the most girl power, got it!?”

“Huh? Wow, you’re fine with the girl power part?” Junpei checked.

“I’ve got Rokuten, don’t I?” This explained a grand total of nothing.

Souji shrugged. “That is true. He’s got the most girl power and man power out of the eight of us. I’m not sure about with your group, though.”

“He might have to fight over it with Shinjiro-senpai,” Hamuko replied. “...Kanji-kun, could you try not to scare our cartographer?”

“He said I looked like a villain from Featherman, so I decided to try and live up to his expectations.”

“I never said it was Featherman!”

“You were right, Hamuko,” Yukari commented. “He is kind of like Shinjiro-senpai.”

“Hey, you better hurry up, or we’re gonna ditch you,” Shinjiro threatened.

“You stopped fooling us a long time ago, Senpai! Besides, you can’t leave without me, I’m the leader!”

Ken approached Kanji, looking somewhat contemplative. “Um…”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Oh, um… nothing…”

Suddenly, a mechanical-sounding voice spoke up from nowhere. Mechanical, in this case, meaning more robotic than Aigis. “Welcome, stray lambs. This is the second year class 2’s display.”

“Who said that!?”

“Hello to everyone. Both those I’m meeting for the first time, and those I’m not meeting for the first time. This display uses state-of-the-art technology to find your destined partner with a few simple questions. You can participate if you wish, or you might choose not to.”

“W-what’s up with that?” Yosuke asked. “I mean, we’ve got no choice not to do it!” Hamuko was suddenly reminded of her contract.

“Well, technically, we could choose to stay here forever,” She pointed out. “Bit hard to avoid a paradox, though.”

Rei gained a look of hope on her face. “So we’re going to find out who our destined partners are…! Zen! Hey, Zen!”

“What is it?”

“U-um, about my… destined partner… Who do you think it is…? Who could it be?”

“We’ll find that out in this display, won’t we?” Zen pointed out.

“Geez! You dummy!” Rei started snacking on another corn dog from nowhere.

“Dummy? Why?” It seemed that Zen was just going to keep missing the point.

* * *

  
  


Even the doors in this Labyrinth looked different to the last one. They seemed to be some kind of… pink metal? “So, what do you think?” Hamuko found herself asking. “Spray paint, or something else?”

“I am not sure that matters right now,” Naoto pointed out. “What’s more important is that there are probably Shadows beyond that door.”

“Naoto-kun’s right,” Rise spoke up. “I can’t get a good read on them, but these Shadows feel much stronger than the ones in the previous Labyrinth! Keep your guard up!”

Hamuko shrugged. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine!” And then the door opened, and they were swarmed by snakes.

“...Yuki? Never say that again.”

“Understood, Mitsuru-senpai…”

* * *

  
  


When all of the Shadows were defeated, Mitsuru turned towards Souji’s group. “Hm? Do you all not use guns?”

“Guns?” Souji asked. “...Oh, you mean the Evokers! No, we don’t need them. Otherwise, there’s no way we’d have let Naoto join.”

Hamuko nodded. That did sound fairly sensible. But at the same time… “Why don’t you need Evokers?”

“Honestly, it just happens…” Yosuke admitted. “But even if we did need them, we wouldn’t know where to get them. Didn’t even know they existed before the school trip.” That would have complicated things, yes.

“Then how do you summon?” She found herself asking.

“Well, we use these cards,” Yukiko said, holding out a blue tarot card with the image of Amaterasu emblazoned on it. “We just break them, and… well, I can’t really explain it.”

“That’s okay. It’s not like we’ll need to summon without them anytime soon, right, guys?” She couldn’t imagine not bringing her Evoker with her everywhere… which was probably a sign of a larger problem, if she let herself think about it too much.

“Still, calling your Personas like that… you guys must be pretty serious, right?” Yosuke asked.

“Junpei-san spends his days sleeping in class, doodling in his notes, and spinning his pen,” Aigis deadpanned.

“Hey, that’s not all of it!” Junpei protested. “I’ve got friends! Like Hamu-tan and Yuka-tan and Kenji!”

“Well, yeah,” Yukari admitted. “But being friends with us doesn’t give you superpowers.” Souji turned to Hamuko.

“You told them…?”

“Velvet people kinda backed me into a corner. But they’re okay with it. I guess that’s why I was able to talk about it in the first place.”

“I wonder if summoning is so easy for us because of our resolve,” Yukiko suggested. “It comes from someplace different, but it’s the same basic thing, right?”

“Facing a truth you don’t want to accept?” Souji tilted his head to the side, as if mulling it over. “Yeah, I can kind of see that. Not that I’d pick up one of those things myself, of course.”

“That does make sense…” Yosuke agreed. “What do you think, Leader?” She paused. Honestly…

“Truth be told, I’ve never really thought about it that much,” She admitted. “It’s just… I’ve spent over half my life being able to see something no one else did, and then I met others who were the same. And this was how they did it, so I did, too. No real need to think about it or anything.”

“Huh…”

“Come on, it’s not that strange! Don’t you have any odd devices that you use without thinking?”

“Well, there’s our glasses,” Yukiko suggested, pulling out a pair of red frames. “They let us see through the fog in the TV. They also keep us from getting ill there. Teddie made them for us.”

“He did?” Akihiko asked.

“Heheh, I’m a skilled artisan!” The bear boasted. “I call them, the ‘See-through Glasses That Work in the Fog’!”

“You only just started that now,” Yosuke groaned.

“How do they work?” Mitsuru questioned. Souji’s group just shrugged.

“Really, it’s not any weirder than when my partner first stuck his head into a TV in the Junes electronics section.”

Hamuko blinked. “I’d say I’ve seen weirder, but according to Junpei I’m not allowed to comment on that anymore.”

“In any case,” Souji suggested, “Let’s hurry on. Please. Before I lose what little sanity I have left.”

In that, they were agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And this is why nothing in the Group Date Cafe can inflict Charm, despite it being the perfect place to. No matter what Mitsuru might make you think, it and panic are clearly two very separate things!
> 
> Narcissus Flowers, in this, are flowers of the genus narcissus that just so happen to have been enchanted with a permanent Charmdi effect. Hamuko sometimes attempts to grow new ones with an innate enchantment back at the dorm, but it's not going well.
> 
> Yes, I actually know what species of Narcissus Flower every party member has. It may be important later.


	16. Mysteries, Dreams, and Childish Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group ends up spending some time outside the Labyrinths. Hamuko decides to enjoy her break with her friends. In no way does she regret this at all.
> 
> Pharos approaches Nanako with an idea of his own. There may actually be some regrets here.

At one point, Hamuko had compared the Labyrinth floors to blocks in Tartarus. Now, she knew she wasn’t entirely correct, because the difference between two Labyrinths was more reminiscent of that little… feature… of her favorite helltower.

Though, even then there were bits that could be… annoying. Such as spikes that drained away all your magical energy when you did so much as poke them. In a group of teenagers prone to experimentation.

Suffice to say, them retreating until they could recover really didn’t come as much of a surprise at all.

Which was why Hamuko was standing in the food court, carrying a full plate. After all, she never seemed to get full no matter how much she ate, so it couldn’t hurt to get just a bit more, right? It even seemed that others had had the same idea!

“Arf! Arf!” Koromaru barked, running over to her for pets.

“Hey, Koro-chan,” She greeted him, ruffling the fur behind his ears. “You’re here for food, too?”

“You seriously want more?” Yosuke asked. “You’re not tired of it, after earlier?”

“I don’t get festival food that often,” She pointed out.

“And it’s not like you can fight on an empty stomach, either,” Junpei added. “Come on over, we’ve got an empty seat.”

Said seat was next to Shinjiro. Hamuko wasn’t sure if that was planned or not. Well, using Thanatos would probably keep her from getting too flustered… Okay, that would be her plan, then. Not like she’d need to call a Persona out here…

“I have been wondering… what does that phrase mean?” Aigis asked, as Hamuko sat down with her food, switching her main Persona to Thanatos at the same time.

“Well, if your stomach growled during a group date, it’d hurt your image, right? You only get one first impression so you gotta make sure to eat first! That’s what it means.”

“...I understand.”

“Junpei, what have I said about corrupting Aigis?” Was one of the wind Personas in the pool available?

“C’mon, Hamu-tan, it’s not like it’ll matter!”

“How do you know that? Maybe one day she’ll meet someone that’s into robots and decide to date them.” Hamuko deliberately chose to ignore the fact that she was about fifty-percent certain Aigis had some form of a crush on her. That wasn’t a can of worms she felt like opening just yet.

Shinjiro sighed. “Does he ever stop with this?”

“You’ve been here two weeks, you should already know the answer,” She replied.

“Arf.” Koromaru… Hamuko was pretty sure that was meant to be some form of sage advice. Sometimes, she swore that the dog was the only one who really had his life together.

Naoto had stopped eating, and appeared to be thinking about something. “Still, I wonder why it’s a Group Date Cafe.”

“Just pouring salt in the wounds…” Yosuke sighed. “Really, how was I supposed to know it’d be a flop!?”

“That isn’t the point here. Unfortunately, I can’t make any real comparisons, as I don’t know much about the Group Date Cafe you came up with for your display.”

“Really, having something like that in your Culture Festival is pretty cool,” Junpei said.

“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Though Yosuke-senpai has already faced the consequences of his actions regarding the festival in general…”

“Come on, we agreed not to bring that up again!”

“This is supposed to be based on you guys’ school, right?” Shinjiro asked.

Naoto nodded. “More than that… it’s almost exactly the same.”

“Just almost?” Hamuko checked.

“Well, you remember the clock tower.” Fair enough. “In addition, there are a greater number of rooms, and different displays. The Wonderland Labyrinth, for example, took the place of a cosplay cafe back in our world.”

Shinjiro shrugged. “Either way, I can’t picture any normal school ever doing a Group Date Cafe at their Culture Festival.”

“Most normal schools aren’t out in the country with nothing to do?” Yosuke suggested. “...Also, most classes don’t have the combined inane senses of humor as Partner and Yukiko.”

“No, I mean most people wouldn’t even suggest it.”

“...You know what? I choose to take that as a compliment.”

“Though, this probably wasn’t some coincidence.”

“What makes you think that, Senpai?” Hamuko asked, still fighting the urge to inch closer to him. No, that’d just make him uncomfortable.

He probably didn’t like her like that, anyway. She wasn’t anything special.

“Well, it’s set up like their school, and it’s even got a Group Date Cafe like they did.”

“That’s a good point.” And they were both well versed in schools turning eldritch, so they should know!

“Where are the two of you going with this…?”

Hamuko sighed. “I’m saying this would be easier if I had access to all my notes on Shadows.”

“You mean the ones you dropped in the middle of the tower last week and never got back?”

“Okay, so I made a few miscalculations….” Mostly how fast something could attack at range, and how long it would take for the Reaper to show up.

“Don’t worry about it, Hamu-tan,” Junpei suggested. “It’s all always worked out before, right?”

Hamuko was tempted to remind Junpei that she’d been hospitalized for a week at the start of the year for a reason, but decided against it. And, well, he had a point. It had always worked out just fine before, no reason to think things would start changing.

“Besides, if you stress out too much, you’ll make yourself sick again,” Shinjiro added. “And we can’t have that happening.”

“Arf.” It was hard to argue with Koromaru. He was too cute for that.

“Fine…”

* * *

  
  


Not all of the displays in the odd Culture Festival were food based, of course. There was a movie theater, as well. Souji stood at the entrance, wondering if he should go in or not, when Junpei noticed him.

“Hey, we were just talking about this movie… Take a look at what’s showing.” It said ‘Happily Ever After: A Montage of the Most Beautiful Weddings’. “What do you think?”

“I think he’s already planning his own wedding,” Hamuko stated with a grin on her face. “What about you, Vice Leader?”

“That does look like the only reason someone like him would watch this movie…”

“What are you talking about?” Rei asked. “Of course he wants to see it! We all have to see it! There’s no other choice, we’ll die if we don’t!”

“We’ll take that as a ‘yes’ from Rei-chan…”

“I wasn’t expecting a high schooler to show so much interest…” Junpei admitted.

“Is it surprising?” Souji’s own Magician asked. “She was pretty keen on the Destined Partner stuff earlier, too.”

Naoto gave a small smile. “I suppose you could say Rei-san is a girl with a dream.”

“It’s a good dream,” Hamuko commented. “Hey, what do you think?” For a moment, Souji considered the prospect of a life with Yukiko.

“That… I think that might be nice, one day.”

“I have heard that everyone has dreams,” Aigis stated. “What makes Rei-san any different?”

Naoto sighed and pulled her hat down over her eyes. “Well, yes, that’s true, but… that’s not the kind of dream we’re talking about here.”

“Dreams aren’t something you have,” Rei said. “They’re something you achieve.”

“Achieve…”

“Well, that’s what you say, but I think you should just have dreams.”

“Hm…?”

“I mean, when would a prince ever… Um… Hey, Yo-chan… are you… really a prince?”

“Well, some of us call him the prince of disappointment,” Souji joked.

“Come on, Partner, not you too!”

“The Prince of Disappointment… what kingdom is that?”

“That’s not a kingdom!”

“So you’re not…?” Rei asked, looking upset. Yosuke started staring at his own feet.

“Well… uh…. Of course, I’m the Prince of Disappointia. I’ll be ascending the throne soon!” Souji decided to take this as a sign that his Magician really was growing up. As if Susano-o wasn’t proof of that enough.

Junpei sighed. “This is just sad…” Hamuko nodded.

“It’s kind of sweet, though…”

“Yosuke-senpai’s quite kind and caring,” Naoto chose to share her opinion, “So he can’t really say no.”

“He’s too good of a person.”

“Would you three stop that!?” Yosuke complained.

“I have heard that Naoto-san is called the ‘Detective Prince’ in your time,” Aigis said. Souji wasn’t sure if she was trying to stay on topic or not. “Are you a prince, too, Souji-san?”

Well, Yukiko’s Shadow was a princess… “Under a certain definition.”

Rei turned around in excitement. “You two are princes, too?”

“A third prince… Yasogami High must have a unique educational program if so much royalty attends it.”

“Vice Leader, do I need to talk to you about corrupting my robot?”

“Sorry, Yuki-senpai… It was an inside joke. And I told you to stop calling me that.”

“Stop calling me senpai!”

“Now that I think about it… where’s Zen-kun?” Naoto asked.

“He went on patrol,” Rei answered. “I told him I’d be okay on my own. It’s only dangerous in the Labyrinths, after all! I think he’s having fun, now that you’re here.” Hamuko turned to her.

“He wasn’t before?”

“Well, we were, but it was sort of lonely, before all of you came along… We were the only ones here. So, try and get along with him, all of you.”

Naoto nodded. “Of course. The two of you are a perfect couple, always looking out for each other like that.”

“C-Couple? Do… do we look like a couple?”

“That or you have the most obvious somehow-unnoticed crush this side of Hamu-tan… Ow!”

“You deserved that.” Souji couldn’t bring himself to disagree.

* * *

  
  


Pharos was nervous. He knew he had no reason to be- he and Nanako had already established some small bond of friendship, and the leaders of the group were both very dear to them.

But the Velvet Room was… different, in a way. He’d never set foot there before, though he very well could, because something about it unsettled him. It felt wrong to be manifested in this place. Hamuko’s place. And, eventually, Souji’s, too.

But that was where Nanako was, building a house of tarot cards under Marie’s watchful gaze, so that was where he’d have to be, if he wished to talk to her.

“N-Nanako-chan?” He spoke, quietly, afraid of disturbing the peace of this place. The girl paused from her attempt to place the Six of Coins, walking over to him. He thought maybe she would have run, if she couldn’t feel just how special this place was.

“Oh, Pharos-kun! Do you want to help me build?” Part of him wanted to say yes, to solidify this new friendship even further, but the rest of him wanted to do what he’d come there for, before leaving the Velvet Room as quickly as possible.

He listened to the second part. “Actually, I was just here to ask you about something else. An idea.”

“What kind of idea?”

“Well, Kujikawa lets you see what her Persona sees, right? And I- I can’t leave Hamuko.” He wouldn’t have put it in exactly those terms before today, but there was something about being able to walk around and interact with large groups of people that let him think to change things.

“But she’s not here right now.”

“Actually, she’s just on the floor above.” Still teasing Junpei about his girlfriend, more precisely, but Pharos didn’t think that was the kind of thing he was meant to share. “So, I can be here, because she’s close by. And even if she weren’t… this place is strange.” Different. Whatever was binding him to the redheaded Fool was less powerful, had been weakening all year, but this was easily the most free he had ever been.

It’d probably be back to normal, once they returned to their own time. Nothing but the Dark Hour to keep himself occupied. “Anyway, that’s… so, Kujikawa lets you see your brother fight?”

“Uh-huh! Big Bro’s really cool! He just points at things, and they go zap!” A far cry from Hamuko’s limited fire powers.

“I suppose he must use that Persona often,” Pharos mused, “For it to get so strong like that. He must be very sure of himself.”

“I guess…?” Right, Nanako was still new to the whole Persona thing. It was easy to forget, sometimes, when everyone else had some amount of prior experience. “Big Bro never seems to be scared of anything. He just… does things.”

“Would you like to make it easier for him to do things?” He asked.

“I could do that?”

“I think he’d fight a lot harder if he had his sister cheering him on.” At least, that’s what the show Ken and Hamuko were both addicted to claimed. “And… that’s what I wanted to suggest. It would be… a lot easier, to cheer together than alone.” Because he still wasn’t used to showing himself to others. Didn’t really talk with anyone not Hamuko, Nanako, or Ken. Wasn’t even sure if he would be able to.

But with help from Nanako… yes, that could work just fine.

“O-okay. That sounds like fun!” The girl nodded decisively. He found himself smiling.

“I’ve heard that, when you come to an agreement like this, you’re supposed to shake hands,” He told her, because he was curious what it was like. Hamuko never took his hand for anything.

Nanako’s hand was warm. “Pharos-kun, are you feeling okay?” She asked him, out of nowhere.

“I feel normal. Why do you ask?”

“You’re really cold! That’s not good for you!” Cold? Really? But he felt just fine!

“I… can’t say I understand that. I’ve… always felt that way. It might be because I’m not entirely human.” That bit of himself, at least, he’d accepted.

Hamuko’s pet theory on his origins? Not so much.

Still, this reminder about the unknown side of himself was enough for him to decide he was done here, and to quickly vacate the Velvet Room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, cheer squad is formed! Also, Pharos is starting to learn how to be a normal kid. Including how he is nothing like one.
> 
> ...Let's be honest, Izanagi is the coolest Persona in P4. Of course Souji would keep using him. Particularly when it accentuates a key difference between himself and his predecessor.
> 
> That moment when you realize Akihiko might actually be the one who knows the most about the team's relationship drama...


	17. Confused Sparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes time for the group to advance in the Labyrinth, and sometimes they need to take breaks, or just want to talk about things. This is normally a good thing. Sometimes, though, it dredges up issues that really didn't need to be.
> 
> Also, when they finally do make progress, Hamuko ends up facing a mutiny. So there's that.

Hamuko wasn’t entirely sure what symbolism, exactly, went into the construction of this Labyrinth, but the massive chains rotating overhead didn’t exactly give a good feeling. Then again, something needed to break away from the sickening amounts of pink. And it wasn’t that bad, if the group just kept moving.

But, sometimes, they had to rest, even with Teddie to provide them a quick escape. And so they ended up taking a break in a place where the very colors hurt her eyes.

“Huh? Huh? It’s not here…”

“What’s wrong, Yukari?” She asked.

“I dropped the resin I use for my bow somewhere… you know, the stuff you asked me for that one time?”

“Yeah, by the way, that was all Theo’s fault. He asks for the strangest things sometimes… Where did you use it last?”

“Oh, you think- I’ll go check!” As her friend ran off to look for her lost item, Hamuko decided to listen to what everyone else was talking about.

“I guess there aren’t any Shadows around here,” Junpei commented.

“That’s what makes taking a break a good plan,” Chie pointed out. The other girls were quick to join the chatter. “Rei-chan, would you like some chocolate?”

“Chocolate!? I love chocolate! Thanks!” Rei took the chocolate bar and happily bit into it. “Mmm…! So sweet! So good!” Suddenly, she gasped. “It melted! It went away! There’s no more!” Hamuko thought that Rei might have gotten a bit too used to the infinite food that was the festival outside.

“Takeba-senpai gave me some candy earlier,” Yukiko said. “It’s grapefruit. Want some?”

“Wow! Thanks!” Rei was quick to eat this candy, too. “Mmmm…. Slightly bitter… but so good! I’m in heaven!”

“Was it that good?” Yukiko asked. “In that case, I’m glad I shared it.” Meanwhile, Junpei had started talking with Naoto.

“So, you said something about a murder case? What kind of case is it? Will it be on the news? It’s in Inaba, right? I think Hamu-tan’s sports fellowship was the first time I’d ever heard of it.”

“It was on the national news,” Naoto confirmed. “It started up in spring of 2011.”

“Oh, that’s pretty far away for both of us.”

Yosuke sighed. “I guess that’s a matter of perspective… It doesn’t feel that long ago.”

“I-I see. Um, sorry.” Junpei chuckled nervously, clearly looking for a subject change.

“Don’t worry about it. Really, I should apologize, too. I- I’m gonna go leave for a bit.” With that, the physically-older, though technically younger, Magician turned and left.

Akihiko sighed. “He’s… close… to the case, isn’t he?” Naoto nodded.

“I wasn’t there myself, but the second victim… I was told he had feelings for her. Naturally, they were unrequited, but…”

“He’s taking it pretty personal…” Junpei finished, clearly just as uncomfortable.

Hamuko simply shook her head. “Same old Junpei…” One of these days, she was sure he would learn. One day. Not that day, and all things considered, probably not the next day, either.

“...He’s mad, isn’t he?”

Souji shrugged. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him later.”

“Thanks. I owe you one.”

Ken just stared in the direction Yosuke took off in, before nodding and following after.

“Huh? Hey!” Kanji ran after him. Probably none of her business.

At this point, Yukari made her return. “So, how did it go?” Hamuko asked.

“I found it! I guess I tried to stuff it in my pocket and it didn’t go in… Oh well.”

The two of them sat and talked about the things normal people would for a while, before the Lovers of the duo blinked and asked, “...Huh? That voice… is that Yosuke-kun?” The two of them paused for a moment to listen.

“What was going on back there?” Souji was asking his Magician.

“What do you mean?”

“You seemed upset.”

“You noticed, huh?”

“It’s almost my job, when you think about it.”

“I guess so… I was just thinking, is it really that admirable to risk your life for something? I mean, Saki-senpai was… sort of important to me. And since she didn’t get to live her life, I want to live hers as well…” A pause, and then, “I’ll fight for what I believe in, but I don’t plan on dying for it.”

“Good. I wouldn’t know what to do without you, anyway.”

“But the others-”

“Our senpai are different from us, and that’s just fine. I think we’ve already had this talk about true feelings… how many times was it? Seven? A little more?”

“You can’t even bother to keep track of our team members?”

“Actually, I was wondering if I should count Susano-o or not.”

“Yeah, that… that makes sense. Thanks, partner.”

“We’re different from them, huh…” Yukari repeated. “I guess it makes sense, with their Personas and all, but…”

“Yuki! Takeba! The rest of us are ready to go!” Mitsuru called. Hamuko smiled.

“Come on, Yukari. You don’t want to keep her waiting, do you?”

“R-right. Let’s get going.” And on they went.

* * *

  
  


_ “Um, this might be rude, but…” _

_ “C’mon, you’re in grade school. No need to be so uptight.” Hanamura-san had an odd little grin on his face when he turned to Ken. Whether it was real or not, the small boy still didn’t know. _

_ “O-Okay… I heard that someone you like… got killed…” And there went the grin. _

_ “O- oh… And?” _

_ “Um… What are you all gonna do when you catch the killer?” _

_ “Well… We’ll hand him over to the police, I guess. Naoto’s a detective, so…” _

_ “But he’ll be a Persona User, right? The police won’t understand...! Nothing you say will convince them!” Just like- like what happened when Mom died. _

_ “...What makes you say that?” Hanamura-san sat down, inviting Ken to join him. He’d accepted the invitation, of course- it would have been rude not to- before answering. _

_ “My mom died too… It was treated as an accident, but-” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, that single flicker of doubt appearing once again. He was pretty sure Hanamura-san got the idea, though. “I just… I don’t know what I should do.” _

_ It wasn’t like he could ask Hamuko-san. She loved Shinjiro-san, anyone with eyes could see that. It just wouldn’t feel right, to go to her with this. _

_ But going to Hanamura-san wasn’t any better, was it? “Oh... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I’ll head on back. About what I just told you...” _

_ “It’s a secret between us guys, right?” And then, a little louder, “You hear that, Kanji?” Because Kanji-san had been listening in, and Hanamura-san had noticed when Ken didn’t. _

_ “R-right. L-look, I wasn’t listenin’ in, okay? I just didn’t know when to...” And that was when he’d left. _

That had been several minutes ago. Ken simply kept replaying the conversation over in his head, even though he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. Particularly when he had to focus on things like the map.

In truth, he knew Hamuko-san was just trying to keep him from fighting. But making the map was an important job all the same, so he was happy to do it. Maybe then she wouldn’t hate him as much when- no. No, if he let himself think about it, then it would just loop around and make him feel even worse.

“Just a dead end?” Kanji-san’s disappointed tone was what told Ken to fill in some more walls on the map- it wasn’t the first wrong turn they’d taken, and unless they did something really dangerous, or were exceedingly lucky, it wouldn’t be the last. “Guess this was a wasted trip. Let’s head back.”

“Wait,” Naoto-san spoke up. Ken liked Naoto-san. Kid detectives- or teenage ones- were always cool. “This wall here… it seems to be peeling off.”

“Woof!”

“Koromaru-san, what is that you’re holding in your mouth?” Aigis-san asked. Koromaru dropped the heart mark in front of the robot and the girl said robot was seemingly attached to.

“That’s the same as the one we’ve been seeing on the walls!” Hanamura-san remarked.

“Huh. How’d you get that out?” Hamuko-san picked up the mark, looked closer at it. Ken wasn’t sure he saw the appeal, but then, he wasn’t a girl.

“Arf!”

“Aigis, you don’t have to translate that one. Come on, let’s try this way…” And so they set off down the corridor, past a pink plush bear tied up in the same chains that rotated overhead.

...What was wrong with this place!?

* * *

  
  


Eventually, Hamuko was sure they’d be able to handle large amounts of enemies appearing without having to leave the Labyrinth to recover afterwards. Eventually.

For now, though, the food court was a good enough place to be, and all the money that those hands dropped might as well be put to good use. She loved Yatagarasu’s new binding spell. It made hunting them so much easier.

“Oh, Hamuko-san,” Ken greeted her. “Would you like to sit down and eat with us?”

“Not like I have anything better to do,” She pointed out. Kanji was sitting near to them, next to Fuuka and Yukiko. He looked worried, for some reason.

Not that she could blame him. Ken’s presence on the team was worrying in general. Really, Koromaru was easier to work with.

Ken seemed to notice the way Kanji was looking at him as well. “Umm…?”

“Wh-what!?”

“Er… it’s nothing.” Ken kept glancing between Kanji and Hamuko. She sighed and decided to pay a bit more attention to her takoyaki. At least it didn’t ask her to act as its therapist. “Um, I’ll be heading off now.” He turned and left, brushing past Nanako on her way in.

“Kanji-kun! Why were you glaring at Ken-kun?” Fuuka scolded. “You shouldn’t bully little children like that! Er, wait, bullying is bad no matter how old they are!” Right, more self-confidence lessons for Fuuka… not that she was entirely qualified to help with that.

“Kanji’s not a bully!” Nanako protested.

“That’s right,” Yukiko agreed. “Kanji-kun doesn’t have it in him to bully anyone. He just looks scary. Really scary.”

Hamuko didn’t see it. “He doesn’t scare me.”

“R-right. He only seems that way because of how he looks, then… like Shinjiro-senpai?”

“W-what’s he got to do with this!?” With that grin… there was no way she wasn’t teasing her.

Not that Fuuka answered her question. “I’ll just pretend that he’s… a lion. There, you’re such a good boy… Here, have a dumpling…” She hoped Fuuka had actually purchased that, and didn’t make it herself.

“I’m pretty sure lions don’t eat dumplings…”

“This place is pretty relaxing, isn’t it?” Yukiko commented. “Maybe it’s because it reminds me of Junes.”

“What’s so relaxing about a store?” Yukari asked.

“Well, Yosuke’s dad is the store manager, and it’s also our secret headquarters!” Chie announced.

“...If it’s so secret, why are you telling me this?”

“It’ll be fine,” Rise shrugged it off. “And… it wouldn’t need to be our secret headquarters to be safe, because Yosuke-senpai always puts others before himself when it counts. Honestly, it makes the rest of us worry sometimes… But Souji-senpai’s his partner, and he looks out for him, so it still turns out okay.”

“You don’t think he can handle himself?” Hamuko found herself asking.

“I trust him, most of the time,” Souji said. “But… he can go a bit overboard sometimes, and when that happens, I help him out.”

Yukari sighed. “If only we had someone like that for Hamuko…”

“Hey! I can take care of myself!” Her present teammates all gave her disbelieving looks. “...Some of the time?”

“Speaking of being worrying, that goes for you too, Kanji,” Rise stated.

“Huh?”

“Is something wrong with Kanji?” Nanako seemed to be worried. This wasn’t very surprising, she seemed to be a very sweet girl. “His udon is just sitting there. It’s getting all soggy!”

Rise just laughed. “Don’t worry, Nanako-chan. He probably just got hung up on how we kept saying he was scary-looking.”

“Th-that doesn’t bother me at all!”

“Ken-kun looked terrified,” Chie pointed out. Kanji just groaned in response.

Souji nodded. “Yes, he said you looked like a bad guy.” Kanji kept groaning.

“Actually, the bad guy wears a mask,” Hamuko corrected. “But Kanji-kun’s face does look sort of like it? Maybe? If I were shorter? ...Which Ken-kun is. Okay, yeah, I can see it now.”

“Yuki-senpai, you watch Featherman?”

“It’s pretty addicting…” She admitted. “I- sort of bought costumes based on all the characters, I have them in my closet somewhere…. They didn’t fit in the bag.”

Yukari blinked. “Wait… isn’t the only time you buy clothing in sets when…?”

“Right. Yukari, you don’t mind being Feather Pink, right?”

“I would hope she wouldn’t,” Souji stated, “Given that her portrayal of the character happens to be Nanako’s favorite.” His words caused the table to fall silent.

Eventually, Yukari spoke up. “You know, I’m pretty sure there’s some rule of time travel somewhere that says ‘don’t do that’.”

“And?”

Well, that explained a good number of her fellow Fool’s actions. He just didn’t care about the possible consequences.

“And you don’t just dump that sort of thing on people! Why would you even do that!?”

“Because Vice Leader lives to annoy?” Hamuko suggested.

“Hey! Souji-nii does more than that!” Nanako protested. “Most of the time!”

“Only most of the time?”

“Dad says it’s not good to lie,” She replied. “Um…” She kept glancing at Yukari, who eventually noticed.

“What is it?”

“...Nothing.” Hamuko was pretty sure the little girl was going to end up asking for an autograph, eventually. Well. Not her problem.

* * *

  
  


After returning to the Labyrinth, they reached a door that looked… somehow girlier than the others, if that was even possible.

“This door’s different from the other ones…” Yosuke commented. “There might be something inside.”

“You mean like the way forward?” Hamuko pointed out. “We’ve seen everything else up until now… You and Junpei even insisted on poking all the spikes.” Which had not been a good idea. At all.

“This whole Labyrinth is rather odd. There was that announcement earlier, too…” Mitsuru mused. “Either way, there’s no harm in being cautious.” At this point, the door opened, revealing a small room with two more bears tied up in chains blocking the other door out.

“What the…? We can’t go this way.”

“Junpei, this is literally the only path left. There has to be some way to remove the chains.”

“It’s also possible that this is an enemy trap,” Naoto stated.

“Welcome, stray lambs,” The voice from the start of the Labyrinth started up again, this time accompanied by some odd music. “This is a Selection Room of Destiny.” Hamuko could practically hear the capital letters.

Akihiko groaned. “You again. Is this that ‘finding your destined partner’ thing you were talking about?”

“Questions of destiny will be presented for you to answer with your intuition, or however you feel like. There will be multiple questions. Answer them all and you’ll be united with your destined partner. Well then, let’s get started. Question number one.” A tile in the floor slid back to reveal an electronic tablet with a lit up screen.

“So, um…” Yosuke paused, before, “Are we supposed to answer this?”

“It seems like it would be designed for one person,” Naoto noted. “I suppose one of us should step forward.” Hamuko began backing up. No, she could see where this is going. Particularly since all of SEES except for Shinjiro were staring at her.

“Well, she is our leader…” Junpei stated.

“That is a good point,” Mitsuru agreed. “Particularly if we need someone to act as representative.”

“Don’t I get any say in this?”

“Well, I’m already taken,” Souji pointed out, having apparently caught on, “I can’t imagine Kirijo-senpai doing this without freezing our path forward… you’re the one voice of authority left.”

“Come on, Hamuko,” Akihiko encouraged. “It can’t be that bad.” If she didn’t already know he had no prior romantic experience… that would have confirmed it. Something told her switching to Thanatos wasn’t going to get her out of this one.

“...How much money do you guys have on this?”

“Well, half of it comes from Mitsuru…” And that was far more than she’d actually wanted to know.

“Stop. Just stop. I don’t want to do it.”

“Yuki.” And there went the air temperature.

“Fine!” She gave up, walking over to the tablet and tapping on her answer. “You people are horrible! Why am I friends with you, again!?”

“Because they’re your only allies against the eldritch horrors that are the Shadows?” Souji suggested.

“Yeah… yeah, that works…” At least the door was open now. At least she had that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another reminder that every party member in Persona 3 desperately needs hugs. As well as several from P4.
> 
> Souji and Hamuko are basically the therapists for their teams. In no way are they qualified for this.
> 
> SEES has officially stopped caring about the money. It's still going to be given out, they're just really sick of Hamuko's shit right now. Particularly when they see the perfect opportunity.


	18. Gilded Angels and Damage Tiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party has their first encounter with the FOEs of the Group Date Cafe, and just as quickly figure out a way to neutralize them. Sort of. But at least they aren't getting hit by arrows, and that's all that counts, right?

For the most part, progression through the Labyrinth went smoothly, if one discounted the time Chie shoved Yosuke onto one of the energy-draining spikes. Hamuko was pretty sure that was why all the Shadows they encountered either were made of rock or could float.

But there was never anything very big, or any problems that they couldn’t take care of. That was, until Junpei opened a door and paused.

“Mother of…! What the hell is that?”

“I can’t tell you if you don’t let me through the door, Junpei!” Hamuko reminded him. Not that she was likely to know either way but that wasn’t the point.

It turned out to be a giant angel and a deformed horse spinning around in a circle. Both appeared to be made out of solid gold.

Chie peered through the door. “It looks weak, but is that an…?”

Zen nodded. “Yes, it’s an FOE.”

Hamuko sighed. Well, she supposed it would be too much to ask for them never to appear. “Yukari, you’re on arrow deflecting duty.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re our main wind user and it seems like it would hurt if that thing shot us?”

“Okay, good point…”

“Does it do anything but spin?” Kanji asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Yukari replied. “Maybe it’s just looking for a good target.”

* * *

  
  


Just beyond the FOE, the group encountered a table with a tea set placed on it. “N-no way…” Yosuke stammered. “This can’t actually be here.”

“Could there be someone nearby?” Ken suggested. Hamuko shook her head.

“I think this might be more like the potion bottles in the last Labyrinth… wherever those came from.” They never did get an answer for that, did they…?

“Perhaps it was that thing from earlier,” Yukiko ventured. Chie glanced at her.

“I have yet to see a Shadow that would like tea.” Hamuko considered asking Pharos, but the kid was nowhere to be found. It figured, he was never there when she wanted him.

“There are no nearby presences other than ours,” Aigis stated. Mitsuru sighed.

“...Let’s hurry onward. We shouldn’t bother with something so clearly suspicious.”

“It’s in man’s nature to want to drink something once they learn it’s suspicious.” Souji picked up a cup.

“H-hey! Hold on a moment!” But Mitsuru’s words went unheeded, as Souji happily drank the tea.

“Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me…” Rise sighed. Nanako’s voice chimed in.

“Yeah. You know he ate my science project?”

“And Mystery Food X…” Yosuke added. “But seriously, dude, are you alright!?”

“I don’t feel any different. Does anyone else want some? Yuki-senpai?”

“I’m probably going to regret this…” She sighed. “But fine.” Besides, the cups were white instead of pink, and that instantly made them much easier to look at than the rest of the Labyrinth.

Mitsuru groaned. “The two of you… pour me a cup as well.” Well, at least the room would retain its normal temperature.

And, well, it was good tea. Sweeter than Hamuko would have expected, though she wasn’t sure why. In hindsight, everything about this place was trying to be sweet.

“It’s tea time!” Rei declared. “Obviously, the best snack to go with it is donuts!”

“Oh, that does sound nice,” Ken agreed. “May I have one?”

“Of course! They come in plain, chocolate, cinnamon, miso, and fishcake flavors!”

“Um… I’ll have a plain one.”

“Huh. You’re pretty strange, Ken-chan.”

“Y-you’re strange yourself, Rei-san…” 

Just across the table, Chie and Yosuke started fighting over something. Because of course they did. Hamuko decided that the best thing to do would be to ignore them and enjoy her tea.

* * *

  
  


The room after the tea set was covered in spikes. Yosuke sighed. “It’s those damn tiles again. Man, I am so not up for this.”

Aigis turned to Hamuko. “Hamuko-san, it would seem that Yosuke-san is becoming fatigued at a decent rate. I believe it is your duty as the team leader to give him encouragement.” Easy for her to say. She didn’t have to juggle responses to everything in her head.

Well, she knew what made one Magician tick, so… “You know, if you get too tired, you might end up dragged to the nurse’s office.”

The response was rather quick. “Wait, no, I can keep going! Just don’t send me there, the girl who runs it is insane!” Well, he probably wasn’t wrong there…

“I have been told that a nurse’s office is a place for recovery,” Aigis commented.

“Well, yeah, what else would it be used for?”

Hamuko shook her head. “Just hearing you say that is proof that you never attended Gekkoukan.”

“Yes, at Gekkoukan High School, the nurse’s office is a place used to test one’s fortitude. Brave students seeking to test their willpower drink a special concoction that the staff member there makes.” Which, okay, put into words like that, sounded better than it really was.

“That sounds terrifying…”

“Why do you think we don’t visit the one here? We’ve learned our lesson.”

“...Please tell me Elizabeth doesn’t know about this. I’m sure she’d try to copy it if she ever found out.”

“It appears that she is currently unaware of any such goings-on,” Aigis confirmed. “That is why I made sure to inform her.”

“...You did what!? Aigis!”

* * *

  
  


_ “Who summons me? Your bright heart shines even on the darkest night… I shall be your strength… I am Kaguya… May your light never fade...” _

Souji shook his head, staring down at the card in his hand. He’d had many Personas of the Aeon Arcana in past, knew how they worked, in a way. Marie felt similar to those Personas, moreso than any other Social Link did to those of their own Arcana, and he’d always had the feeling she wasn’t normal.

Really, the Velvet Room telling him she wasn’t human was just an answer to one of the many questions that had been following him since he arrived in Inaba. Sure, it just brought up even more questions, but… it was good to have something that he understood.

Life in Inaba, his journey, those were just one big puzzle. And the card Marie had slid into his hand seemed like it would be just another piece of it.

Kaguya, of the Aeon Arcana. Something he instinctively knew he shouldn’t have been touching, and yet, there it was. Making him feel like he could sense the world from the instant he first called it, because, of course, it was a Navigational Persona. Something he had no clue how to use, because sensory abilities had never shown up on anything he’d made or acquired before.

He’d immediately reverted it to card form, because sensory overload was a pain to deal with and he wondered how Fuuka and Rise ever managed to deal with it. Let alone Nanako, who didn’t even have the excuse of it being her own Persona.

Well. If he couldn’t handle it himself, best to leave it to the professionals. “Hey, Yamagishi-senpai? I’ve got something for you to try out…”

* * *

  
  


Just as the Wonderland Labyrinth had been full of clocks and cards, the Group Date Cafe was filled with angels and spike traps. Not necessarily in that order.

“Two of ‘em… This is gonna be tough,” Shinjiro sighed.

“I don’t know about that,” Hamuko replied, taking a better look at them. “They appear to always be facing the same direction. Honestly, the hard part will be staying on the safe path…” She missed Tartarus. At least there, everything was straightforward.

Akihiko nodded. “Yeah, it’s probably not a good idea to walk around randomly with those things here.”

“Well, unless you can use wind magic. Yukari.”

“I know…” Well, at least they had that part figured out.

With Yukari covering them on the occasion an arrow was fired in their direction, they were able to run across without trouble.

“Are you all right, Takeba?” Mitsuru asked. “Having to worry about deflecting two arrows at once must be tiring.”

“I’m fine,” Yukari said, maybe a little too quickly. “But when they shoot things, those angels are really accurate. If I don’t disrupt them with Magarula, they don’t waver at all.”

Chie blinked. “Oh, that’s right. You use bows and arrows too, don’t you, Yukari-senpai? That’s so cool. If I tried, I’d completely miss.”

“Please, you’d probably snap the bow in two,” Yosuke laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Those angels have good control of their shots,” Mitsuru observed, “But those arrows look well designed. If only we could use them for ourselves…”

“Unusually powerful arrows shot from Pleiades?” Hamuko paused to consider it. It didn’t seem like a bad idea. “That… sounds utterly terrifying in an amazingly good way. Let’s do it.”

“Wait a second…” Yosuke glanced between Hamuko and Mitsuru in fear. “You want to steal them? From those powerful FOEs!?”

Akihiko grinned. “That’s a great idea!” Mitsuru groaned.

“I was only addressing the possibility! Why would the two of you knowingly jump into a dangerous situation like that!?”

“Because that would be really cool?” Hamuko suggested, only to be silenced by an icy glare. “Right. No going back in and picking up whatever arrows are on the ground, got it…”

“Hey, there’s one of those doors,” Chie noted, causing Hamuko’s attention to turn to the much more ornate slab of pink.

“Well… at least that makes an easier path.” Again Hamuko opened the door. Again, the path onward seemed to be sealed with chains.

Kanji sighed. “This again. Does that weird guy have more to say?”

“Well, hello. I heard you talking about me, so here I am.” Hamuko glared at Kanji. This was clearly his fault.

“Well, hello, indeed,” Aigis greeted the mechanical voice.

“After much anguish, you succeeded in breaking through the first room. But your path seems as though it might be endless… Yet the choice that determines your destiny is approaching quickly. And so, here is your long awaited question number two.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t looking forward to it,” Hamuko groaned as the tablet slid out from the ground. “It’s asking… how I’d want the person I like to approach me.”

“I mean, that sounds like useful information,” Yukari commented. “This… actually isn’t all that strange.”

“So, what would you like?” Akihiko asked.

“Any way that’s not Junpei’s way.”

“Ouch, Hamu-tan… that’s cold.”

“Really? Because Orpheus just picked up Agilao…” She teased.

“That’s your only condition?” Shinjiro questioned. “Really?”

“You’ve met him,” She pointed out, tapping the tablet screen and watching the chains vanish. “He’s my best friend, but… he’s also kind of an idiot.” Given Yosuke, she was pretty sure it was an Arcana thing. “There’s a reason I decided to never ask him for dating advice.”

“Are we getting closer to our destined partners!?” Rei asked, excitedly. “Are we!?”

“The door’s open. Let’s hurry on.”

* * *

  
  


In a nearby area of the Labyrinth, a boy wearing striped pajamas was talking to thin air.

“Okay, Nanako-chan, are you ready for this?”

“Uh-huh. Big Bro’s going to be in a big fight soon, right?”

“That’s right. Hamuko, too. The enemies aren’t going to be very powerful, but there’ll be a lot of them, and they’ll be in possession of a very dangerous spell.”

“And- and there’s no way to avoid it?”

“Not without failing to progress in the Labyrinth. So we need to make sure they remember what they’re fighting for. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course!” Pharos smiled, and walked down another corridor. He’d need to rejoin the others, and soon, if he wanted to see his prediction bear fruit.

So that was exactly what he’d do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, the Fools are not entirely sane. Just making sure everyone knows that.
> 
> Here, things diverge a bit from my gameplay experience- I had a group of fire and ice users and just plowed through every FOE in my way- mostly because I couldn't think of a good reaction for Mitsuru to have to Hamuko, Junpei, Teddie, and Chie organizing a giant steam explosion. Akihiko would have been enabling their madness.
> 
> Also, Magatsu Izanagi is the one DLC Persona that will never make an appearance. Because there's no real way to throw Adachi into this without making the P4 plot snap like a twig.


	19. The First Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, one would expect a trial to consist of more than a pile of rocks. One would be wrong.

The next door the group encountered was made of an odd, dark-gray metal, with pitch-black decorations. If someone were to ask Hamuko, she’d say it was ominous, and one of her main Personas was Thanatos, so she knew ominous.

“There are Shadows beyond that door,” Pharos stated, appearing out of nowhere. “Quite powerful ones.”

Several of the people around seemed shocked at the Shadow boy’s sudden appearance, but none of them voiced it.

“But this is the way forward, right?” Yukari pointed out.

“I wonder what that’s about,” Rise mused. “I didn’t sense anything here earlier. No Shadows, nothing. It’s like this place didn’t exist until just now. But now there’s a door, and Shadows, too.”

“I know!” Teddie volunteered. “It’s a trial of love!” Souji turned to Yosuke.

“Partner, have you been letting him watch movies again?”

“Look, I can’t babysit him all the time, okay!?”

“Hamuko-chan, are you ready for this?” Fuuka asked. “The enemy seems like it’ll be really hard to defeat.”

“They’ll be okay,” Nanako told her. “Because my Big Bro’s there, and he can do anything! And Pharos-kun and I will be cheering them on!”

Hamuko looked at Pharos. Honestly, she didn’t think such a small boy should be anywhere near a battlefield, Ken notwithstanding. But Shadows were durable, and it wasn’t like she could stop him… “Will you be okay?”

He stared up at her, gaze far too calm for such a young face. “You shouldn’t worry about me. I won’t be attacked by most Shadows.” Given that Teddie took as many hits as the rest of them, she wasn’t entirely sure of that. “You should do what you set out to accomplish.”

“If you say so… but stay back a good distance, okay?” She didn’t even check for the Shadow’s nod before opening the door.

As soon as the door opened, a large number of rock Shadows spilled out. One of them was immediately vaporized by a flash of lightning from Souji. “It’s weak to lightning!” Rise reported, as though they couldn’t all see it for themselves.

...Okay, so it could have just been the incredible force of whatever level attack that was. However many volts it was, it was probably far too many for anyone not named Tatsumi Kanji.

“...Got it,” She finally decided. “Vice Leader, Kanji-kun, Shirogane-san, and Akihiko-senpai should do most of the work here. Ken-kun, too, if there’s nothing that needs updating on the map.”

At this point, one of the rocks started looking at her funny. She threw an Agilao at it before it could get any ideas. Once it was knocked into the others of its kind, she called Yatagarasu. It was time for a tricky bit of spellwork.

The idea of magic circles, of weaving spells into a specific location with a certain passive effect, had never been something she had the patience for learning. It wasn’t something she thought anyone would devote a great amount of time to, but it had its uses, and stopping a large group of enemies in their tracks was one of them.

A large magic cost, and suddenly the Shadows were surrounded by symbols that Hamuko didn’t fully know the meaning of, but could still understand their purpose- stop. The rocks all locked up, unable to move, and were quickly mowed down by fierce bolts of lightning.

Honestly, it was a lot easier than she’d thought it’d be.

Yosuke stepped into where the runic circle used to be, it having been dismissed as soon as there was nothing left to stun. “Huh. I hadn’t quite realized it before, but… we’re all a lot stronger than when we first started out, aren’t we?”

“I suppose that’s true,” Mitsuru agreed. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t still in danger past this point. Being too relaxed, or overconfident, could lead to fatal results.”

“She has a good point,” Pharos stated. “At the same time, though… I was worried about how you would all deal with those Shadows. You didn’t get the chance to see it, but they had the power to make others into something like themselves.”

“What, into Shadows?” Hamuko found herself asking.

“No. Into rocks.” Okay, that would have been a bad thing… even if she didn’t know how that would work. She decided to just not question it and move on.

_ (Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Death Arcana…) _

* * *

  
  


Hamuko prided herself on being able to easily juggle her Social Links. Sure, she was busy all the time, but it meant that she always knew when somebody was being bothered by something.

Not that she was always the first one to see a budding problem, of course. In this case, that was Shinjiro. “Aki? You feeling okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re being too quiet. Something big like that, you’re usually more excited about. So what’s changed?”

“Shinji, do you think that, recently, you’ve gotten stronger?”

“Well, I mean… that’s what the Tartarus runs are for, right? And I guess I have, but… is there a problem?”

“...No. It’s nothing.” Shinjiro didn’t press the matter, and Hamuko decided that, if he wasn’t all that bothered by, she wouldn’t be, either. He knew Akihiko best, after all.

Besides, the stairs were right there, and she wanted to see what the next floor looked like.

Unlike the Wonderland Labyrinth, there didn’t appear to be a large immediate change between the first and second floors. “Looks like there’s still a long way to go,” Chie remarked.

Souji shrugged. “There’s no sense in worrying about what comes next. We should just keep going.”

* * *

  
  


Despite Souji’s words, it seemed like all roads at this Yasogami led to the food court. Hamuko hadn’t even meant to go here, she’d wanted to see a movie.

“Oh, Hamuko-san. Over here!” Ken called, and at this point she couldn’t really turn him down without feeling bad about it. “I was just asking the others if they knew what a group date is like.”

“...Dare I ask why?”

“It makes sense that a grade-school kid wouldn’t know about it,” Yukari pointed out. “And it’s Ken-kun. You know what he’s like.”

“I don’t even think he needs to know,” Yosuke sighed. “Stuff like group dates… they sound exciting at first, but it turns out, they’re actually pretty lame.”

Chie groaned. “No kidding…”

Yukari looked up in interest. “Wait, are you two saying you did a group date together?”

“It was for the display,” The girl in green hastily explained. “You know, we thought that if other people saw us having fun, they might want to join in.”

Hamuko nodded. “Yeah, you mentioned that. If it helps, it’s certainly a unique idea- I’ve visited a lot of high school culture festivals, and yours is the first one I saw with a group date cafe.”

Yosuke sank into his seat. “Really, I just want to forget about it already.”

“It was fun to watch, though,” Souji spoke up.

“That hurts, partner. That hurts deep.”

Ken paused, before deciding, “I don’t really understand.”

“Well, it’s not that exciting to try and make small talk with strangers,” Yukari explained. “So most group dates end up being pretty boring because of that.”

Okay, that was interesting. “You’ve been to one, Yukari?” That didn’t seem like something she’d be interested in, Lovers Arcana or not.

“A few times when my old friends would beg me to go. Or trick me, but I didn’t really stick around for those.”

“They tricked you?” Ken asked. “How?”

“They told me that there’d be cake. They never said anything about other people.”

Hamuko sighed. “Right, normal stuff. Have you ever wondered what it’d be like if other girls weren’t so boy-crazy? Or the other way around?”

“Is that normally a problem at your school?”

“You’ve met Junpei… and Akihiko-senpai has a few horror stories. His fangirls used to send me death threats all the time, but they stopped once I started keeping an intimidating-enough Persona active around them.” Thanatos might not have been the best choice for battle, but he certainly did have his uses.

“So, back on topic…” Chie nervously changed the subject. “I don’t think this is going to end up being as weird as our display did. You know, since it’s not an actual group date.”

“That is a good point…”

There was the sound of approaching squeaking, and Teddie hopped up to them. “Hey, what’s everyone doing here?” Rei was a short distance behind him, but she was walking normally.

Yosuke sighed. “This could be trouble... Quick, someone change the subject to anything not a group date.”

“What’re you doing?” Rei asked. “Are you tasting chocolate-covered bananas? The third from the left in back is the best!”

Chie turned to her. “You can tell just by looking at it? But… no, we’re not doing anything much. Nothing at all.”

“Hmmm…. That sounds suspicious,” The bear Shadow pointed out. Yosuke glared at Chie.

“S-so, where’s Zen-kun?” Yukari asked. “He’s not here?”

“He went on patrol. It’s only dangerous in the Labyrinth, so I told him I’d be fine on my own.”

Behind them, Souji had taken Ken aside and started talking to him. “So, do you understand a group date better now?” He asked.

“...Not at all.”

* * *

  
  


Afterwards, Hamuko ended up spending some time browsing the display hall, eventually encountering Kanji and a handful of their teammates. “Oh, Hamuko-senpai. Could you do something? I don’t get what these people are saying at all!”

“Yuki. Would you care to join us? You must be curious about this, too.”

“About what, Mitsuru-senpai?”

“It’s about Teddie. I scanned him earlier, and now… I can’t help but wonder how he exists. And the design of that costume is… incomprehensible.”

“Even dressed like that, he can still fight like the rest of us,” Akihiko pointed out.

Shinjiro sighed. “Aki. Mitsuru. We have a dog and a robot. I don’t think we have any room to talk here.”

“And it’s not like this is the only friendly Shadow we know,” Hamuko added. “I mean, if that’s what Pharos is. He doesn’t seem to know himself, but… and Zen-kun and Rei-chan sort of count too, going by what Theo told us. As for the costume… is that his true form?”

“I mean, that’s what he looked like when we found him,” Kanji shrugged. “The human thing came later, after he got his Persona.”

“I still can’t help but think he’d be more effective without the costume on,” Mitsuru stated. “At least then he wouldn’t alert every Shadow in the area to our presence.”

“...Honestly, it’d be kind of weird to see him fighting without it,” The first year pointed out. “He might not need it anymore, but he’s so attached to it I’ve never been able to touch it.”

“Rei tried it on, once,” Akihiko commented. “She took it off right away because she said it was too heavy and hot to eat anything. Teddie didn’t see the problem, though.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Hamuko replied. “He uses ice spells. He can probably just cast one to cool himself down whenever he needs to.”

“That sounds like it would be a terrible waste of magical energy, particularly during the summer.”

“I don’t know. When winter comes around, it sounds like he’ll be the most comfortable one here.”

Shinjiro groaned. “They’ve been at this forever now. Before you got here, they were just going around in circles… they’re both battle-crazy idiots.”

“...I want to disagree with you, but you’re not wrong, either. And I assume you know better than to say that to Mitsuru-senpai’s face.”

“...Just Mitsuru?”

“Akihiko-senpai’s not likely to seriously hurt you,” She replied, before backing up a little. “Anyway, they’re not so bad on their own, right?”

“Of course not. But once you get them together, they get all pompous and short-tempered, for some reason… but I guess that’s just part of how they depend on each other.”

“They both seem like they’re having fun, though,” Kanji noted. “I mean, Kirijo-san always seems real tense in the Labyrinth.”

Hamuko shrugged. “Mitsuru-senpai’s always seemed like a tense person in general. I think that’s part of what makes her so scary. I know I can make a Social Link with her, but I just haven’t been brave enough to approach her for it yet.” That was sort of a problem for her in general, really.

“...Maybe you’re right,” Shinjiro agreed. “She’s gotta act like a senpai where there are underclassmen around, huh? Even when I went to school, I didn’t really think about that stuff.”

“I like to think that kind of thing is due to knowing better,” She stated. “I’ve known people much older than me who were really dumb, and Ken-kun’s more of an adult than I’ll ever be.”

“I think he’s more of an adult than any of us.” Which said a lot of things, not all of them good. And yet, nobody could bring themselves to disagree. “That’s sort of scary, isn’t it?”

“Given that we’re sort of responsible for the fate of the world?” Or an hour of the day, but that was close enough, right? “I try not to think about it.”

Ken… there were a lot of implications surrounding Ken. None of them things Hamuko liked to think about. But she didn’t really have a way to deal with it, either- it wasn’t like the kid was asking her for help or anything.

But at least he was responsible enough that she could trust him not to break anything important. In this team, not even that was really a guarantee. So she’d take what she could get, and hopefully it’d turn out alright in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...No, I'm not bitter about the time on my first playthrough they decided to just stone everyone, why would you even think that?
> 
> Ziodyne is painful to be hit by. In the sense that it's probably not something that should be thrown around near normal people. When there are three that have it, and two that manage just fine with Zionga, maybe invest in some insulation.


	20. A Little Looped Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting lost is, more or less, the thing to do in a Labyrinth. Even if the point is more towards slanted towards progression.
> 
> Some get more lost than others, of course.

Hamuko liked the Velvet Room. It was a nice, safe place, that had been there for her and her alone. Even now, in this strange form with so many other people, to her, it was the most familiar thing in the world.

That did not, of course, mean that she couldn’t tell when something was off in the room- Marie was nowhere to be seen.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room.” It was still odd, to hear that from Margaret. From anyone not Igor, actually. Today was just a very strange day.

“...Where’s Marie-chan?” Hamuko found herself asking.

“Do you have business with her? She is out on an errand right now. Please wait here until she returns.”

“An errand? Where did you send her?”

“I sent her to check on Elizabeth. She probably wouldn’t break anything important, but… Marie has always seemed to be suffocating here.” Margaret turned back to shuffle her deck of tarot cards, and some stationery fell from the table to the floor.

Unable to help herself, Hamuko picked it up. It appeared to be some sort of poetry. “Is this hers?”

“It appears so. Perhaps she dropped it? It happens from time to time…” The woman in blue laughed, and appeared to be trying just a bit too hard to look innocent.

Hamuko didn’t comment on that, however, focusing more on what was written down. “She seems passionate about it…” And given that the other girl was her age, it was actually better than she’d expected.

“Ah! Wait!” The stationery was ripped out of her hand, and Hamuko found herself face to face with a heavily blushing Marie. “Th-this isn’t what it looks like! It’s just, uh… My pathos was screaming out and it’s not like they’re poems! I mean, why’d you read it!? Your selfishness is drowning the world!”

“Marie!” Margaret scolded. “What did I tell you?” The green-eyed girl winced.

“R-right. Sorry… but don’t read people’s private stuff!” Hamuko quickly nodded, hoping that Marie wasn’t as ungodly powerful as the Velvet siblings seemed to be.

“G-got it. Of course not. No more picking up random pieces of paper.” No offending people from the magic blue room outside reality.

“Why was it even out, anyway…?” Marie muttered, sounding like- was she crying? Not that Hamuko would ever get a straight answer from her on that. “This doesn’t make any sense…” She decided not to mention Margaret’s place in this just yet. Actually… maybe avoiding the Velvet Room in general would be a good idea right now.

* * *

  
  


“Hamuko-sama? Hamuko-sama, I need your help.”

“What is it, Theo?” She asked, hoping it didn’t turn out like some of his stranger requests.

“Well, Miss Chie was in possession of a curious delicacy referred to as a ‘meat jelly,’ and left it on a desk next to the entrance of the Labyrinth you all are currently exploring.” Meat jelly? She’d never heard of anything like that.

“I see… but what does that have to do with me?”

“Well, when she placed the jelly, she was speaking with Yosuke-san, and she said that, if anything were to happen to her snack, he was a dead man.” Okay, she could see where this was going now.

“...Something happened, didn’t it?”

“Y-yes. You see, when they were leaving the area, Yosuke-san knocked a blackboard off-balance, and it then fell, squishing the jelly. Please, you have to help me find a way to hide what happened.”

She sighed. Really, it was almost funny, if not for the fact that she knew Theo meant every word he said. He really was too gullible.

“...Theo, we’re going to go talk to Satonaka and explain what happened.”

“But Yosuke-”

“-But first, we’re going to have to have a talk about these little things called ‘figures of speech’...”

* * *

  
  


The first sign that this floor would be different from the last was… “Moving walkways?”

“Wait, what?” Chie pushed her way to the front of the group. “Oh, you’re right! The floor is moving!”

“I guess it’ll carry you if you stand on it,” Shinjiro shrugged.

“Do you not have them, where you’re from?” Mitsuru asked. Chie shook her head.

“No, but I always wanted to get on one of these. Hey, Hamuko-senpai, can we ride it? Please? Please?”

Hamuko sighed. “You do not get to make puppy eyes. Only Koro-chan gets to do that.”

“And there’s no telling what could be awaiting us ahead,” Mitsuru added. “We shouldn’t ride it unless we’re fully prepared. Is that clear?”

“...Mitsuru-senpai, it’s a moving walkway. We can see the end right there.” To prove her point more effectively, Hamuko stepped on to the heart-covered conveyor belt.

She almost immediately tripped on the platform that was moving a lot faster than she’d expected, attempted to use her naginata to steady herself, and ended up falling off on the other side.

Chie hopped on after her, and summoned Suzuka Gongen to freeze her feet to the platform, actually riding all the way to the end. “That was fast!” She cheered. “...Hamuko-senpai? Are you okay?”

“Please let me apologize on behalf of our rowdy country mouse,” Yosuke called across. “...Really, though, are you feeling all right?”

Hamuko groaned. “It’s fine. Nothing a quick Dia won’t solve. Really, it’s just my pride that’s hurt…” She glanced up, only to see a lot more of the moving walkways. This was not going to be fun…

* * *

  
  


Thankfully, future walkway excursions were, at the very least, easier for Hamuko not to lose her balance on once she knew what to expect.

...Less thankfully, these walkways were everywhere, and soon everyone found themselves separated from each other across a single room.

“Going back and forth like this is wearing me out…” Yosuke sighed. Ken nodded.

“It would be nice if we could take a break…”

“Well, I mean, we could,” Hamuko pointed out. “We need to wait for the others to catch up to us, after all.”

“Doesn’t that assume we’re going the right way?” The knife-wielding Magician asked.

“Really, I just… want us to all be in one place. More than we are now. Ken-kun, do you have a way to mark the walkway progression?”

“I’ve just been using arrows… is that bad?”

“It’s probably the most we’ll get…”

“There is some good news for you stray lambs,” A familiar mechanical voice spoke up. “The next Selection Room of Destiny… is very close by.”

Hamuko grinned at the boys. “See? I knew we were going in the right direction!”

Yosuke rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever you say.”

“You consider whether it is best to come or not come; proceed or remain in place…”

“...We’re waiting until there’s more than three of us here, right, guys?”

“We should probably actually let them know this is the right direction…” Ken mused.

“...Fuuka-chan? Rise-chan? Could the two of you get on that, please?” In hindsight, unable to really grasp the topography or not, the navigators would likely be able to at least prevent them getting so badly turned around on themselves.

Not that it tended to help them in Tartarus… but Tartarus was always shifting, so she supposed she could excuse that. At least this was something they’d be able to help with.

* * *

  
  


“Where we drifted was a dead end… that is the epitome of love,” Teddie sighed.

“How does that describe our situation at all?” Shinjiro asked.

“I can just tell! This place is filled with the ABCs of love!”

Souji groaned. This was why he had told Yosuke to limit the bear’s access to sappy romance stories- it was bad enough that his greatest influence was a bunch of teenagers, he didn’t need to be taking advice from even more questionable sources. “Teddie, that’s not how it works…”

“And even if it were, what’s the deal with those moving walkways?”

“Um… they signify letting things take their own course… I think.”

“So if you don’t act, you end up separated from the one you love?” Souji checked, glancing around. Nope. Still no Yukiko in sight. “...The sad thing is, that actually makes sense.” Not in a way that he enjoyed thinking about, but it made sense all the same.

“You’re really listening to him?”

“Teddie’s thought patterns are… different, from a normal human’s,” He admitted, “But he’s the closest thing we have to a Shadow expert, even if we made a few… missteps… integrating him into society.” He was pretty sure that was mostly because they hadn’t realized they’d have to deal with him in public one day, but that wasn’t the point.

“I’m not sure this has anything to do with Shadows. And why are we standing here? We need to get back to the others.”

“So quickly?” Teddie asked, turning to Shinjiro in a way that was almost too innocent. Souji reminded himself to teach him how to not go overboard with that. “...Then again, with all the lovely ladies away from here… Chie-chan, Yuki-chan... Hamu-chan-”

This was about the point when the bear was knocked away by an amount of physical force that really shouldn’t have been conveyed in a simple wave, before Shinjiro walked away and stepped onto the nearest walkway.

“...You know,” Souji started, “If you wanted to know if he liked her back, I can’t help but think there were safer ways to find out.”

“What are you talking about?” Nanako’s voice chimed in from nowhere.

“N-nothing,” He quickly backtracked, because setting his sister to follow Teddie’s example was probably the worst decision he could possibly make. “Anyway, does Yamagishi-senpai have anything to say?”

“Actually, we’re all doing things right now. Leader found the way out, so we’re trying to direct everyone to her.”

“...Right. So, Aragaki-san just wandered off…”

“I know. It’s displayed right here in the bubble.” Really, was he the only one who had problems with Navigation? “But he’s going the right way, so I guess it doesn’t matter. Good luck, Big Bro!”

Well. That much, at least, he could manage on his own.

* * *

  
  


“That… was more painful than it had to be.” Nobody said anything to disagree with Hamuko, likely because they’d managed to get even more turned around on themselves. “Let’s never do this again.” She never thought she’d be glad to see a door covered in chains, but at least it meant that the ground was not moving beneath her.

“The stray lambs have arrived. Hello on this new floor as well.”

“Hold on,” Naoto stated, looking up at the ceiling. “Could you tell us what, exactly, you are?”

“You have passed through the second question of death, and emerged as heroes who still venture forth.”

“I think the answer you’re looking for is ‘a recording,’” Souji volunteered.

“Yes, I realize that…”

“In honor of this, a special third question has been prepared. Steel yourselves before you answer. Now then, here is question number three.” Okay, this one was still fairly normal… wait.

“...Why is one of the options for how to confess your feelings ‘Slug it out on a riverbed’?”

Souji turned to Yosuke. “Partner, is there something you’re not telling me?”

“W-what!? No! Of course not!”

“...Does this have anything to do with the time you both showed up to school badly beaten up, and Yosuke suddenly had Susano-o?” Chie asked.

“...Maybe.”

“That means yes!” Rise called.

Yosuke sighed. “Damnit Rise… you’re not supposed to read people’s minds like that.”

Hamuko paused. “Is… is that normally a problem with her?”

“She’s insatiably curious and has a Persona ability that enables it. Yes.”

“Right.” She probably didn’t have anything to worry about. Thanatos would likely scare anyone off before they got in too far. Not that there’d been tests or anything. That would definitely be a bad idea, particularly if they wanted the people who could scan to still be there afterwards.

* * *

  
  


A few treasure boxes and a large number of Shadows insisting that Hamuko or Souji wanted an Alp later, they found a nice, easily defensible room. Suffice to say, they were quick to decide they wanted a break, particularly since some of them were still dizzy from the moving walkways, and the angel Shadows throwing constant tornadoes at them weren’t helping.

While they were all waiting for their senses to return properly, Naoto kept glancing at Aigis. “Um…”

“Yes? How may I help you?”

“I suppose, with Koromaru and Teddie, you having a Persona isn’t that much of a shock, but…”

“I am the last of the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons. Wielding a Persona is what I was built for.”

“What incredible technology. Just the implications alone- Um, may I… touch you?”

Souji shook his head. “I should have expected this to happen eventually.”

“Really?” Hamuko asked.

“Yeah. Naoto-san really likes robots.”

“Totally fascinated, even,” Yosuke added. “...You okay with this, Kanji?”

“I don’t really think I have a chance to beat an actual robot,” He sighed. “I mean… you saw the lab.”

“Well, before it blew up, anyway,” Yukiko shrugged. “It turns out, a lot of things in mad science labs are flammable.”

Yosuke rolled his eyes. “You’re only laughing that off ‘cause you’re fireproof. After what you did, I couldn’t walk right for days!”

“You’re already so clumsy outside of battle, though. I didn’t see much of a change.”

“Sh-she’s so evil…!” Junpei stared at the flame-wielding Priestess with a look of… okay, Hamuko would call it fear, if not for the fact that he resisted fire.

“I mean, she’s a match for Vice Leader, so I guess she’d have to be,” She suggested. “...Why is Rei-chan handing out a mountain of donuts?”

“I dunno. Why does Rei do anything?”

“Never say that to Zen-kun. I think he might actually kill you,” She warned him. “But… okay, yeah. I think the best thing to do is not question it.” Actually… that seemed like a good idea for Rei in general.

* * *

  
  


“Do you ever get the feeling we take too many breaks?” Hamuko asked.

Souji shook his head. “It won’t do us any good to overexert ourselves. It never really does.”

“I don’t think she’s ever gonna listen,” Shinjiro said. “She overexerts herself… well, just about always. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her doing nothing.”

“Hey, I have an actual reason for doing those things!” She protested. “And I’m better than Rei, at least!” They all glanced over to where the girl was gulping down more food than someone her size should have been capable of eating.

“Takoyaki always tastes best if you eat it within twenty seconds of coming off the griddle!”

“...Someone should probably stop her, actually,” Hamuko sighed. “Junpei?” Her Magician groaned, but did as he was told.

“R-Rei-chan? Why don’t you cool it a little? You’re gonna choke on your food.”

“Choking? What do you mean?” Rei asked around a mouthful of takoyaki. “I’ve never had a problem with that. And food is tasty!”

Souji groaned. “Yuki-senpai? Do you know where Zen is?”

“If I did, I would be getting him right now. This is… part of me is jealous she can eat so much, the other part’s worried that she actually will choke and Zen-kun will blame us for it.” She paused, before adding, “I think I’ll go look. Try to get the chopsticks away from her somehow, that might buy us some time.”

Yeah. Not questioning things involving Rei was looking better by the second. Particularly when Souji told her that, by leaving, she’d missed the candy raining down from the sky.

...Really, what was wrong with this place!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...No, stop giving me Alps. I don't want them. I don't need more Personas, stop it.
> 
> Are the events in the Labyrinth fun? Yes. Getting to them? Not so much. Getting out of the Labyrinth? There goes my Goho-Ms... Moving walkways are painful.
> 
> Hamuko just... isn't willing to participate in anything on this floor, for some reason. Maybe her friends should stop teasing her so much...


	21. Koromaru Appreciation Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few bad decisions, a handful of decent ones, and another trial. All just about normal.
> 
> Oh, and Koromaru's there, too.

The next FOEs that the group encountered looked similar to the ones on the first floor. “It’s that guy again…” Yosuke commented.

“This one seems to be a different color,” Zen noted. Which was true. While the previous floor had solid gold Shadows, this one was a blue horse with a pink rider. In fact, due to not being solid gold, Hamuko could see actual details on the spinning creature.

Rei nodded. “Mm-hm. It must be fashionable.”

“Y-you think so?”

“I agree with her,” Hamuko stated. “At least compared to the gold ones. Those were… sort of painful to look at.”

“You’re not wrong…” Yosuke sighed. “But that thing’s definitely gonna shoot at us…”

“Should we fire back?” Aigis asked. No. No, that sounded like a terrible idea.

“Aigis… that’s an FOE. We don’t want to fight it.” She thought that maybe Thanatos would have a chance, but Yukari was the only one there who definitely knew about Thanatos, and odds were none of them would be safe if she released him. So, no, not fighting the FOEs. “Fuuka-chan, could you and Kujikawa scan it, just in case? If it’s a different color, it’s probably a different kind from the ones earlier.”

“I take it I’ll be dealing with this kind, too?” Yukari asked.

“That would help, yes. Particularly given where the door is.” While they did have enough people with healing skills to be able to handle just about every kind of injury that came up… it was better to be safe. Particularly when it took several casts to heal someone completely.

At the same time, with the spinning FOEs, the moving walkways, the spiked tiles, and the angels throwing around tornadoes, she couldn’t help but wonder if the Labyrinth was meant to be implying something about love.

...Actually, given the chains, that wouldn’t entirely surprise her.

* * *

  
  


“Ow!”

Hamuko rolled her eyes. “Junpei, I told you to watch where you were going. It looks like this is a dead end. How many times does this make it?”

“Including incidents within Tartarus, Junpei-san has now run into a total of twenty-seven dead ends since I was assigned to SEES,” Aigis provided.

“Wait, you’re keeping track?” Yosuke asked. “What possible use could that be?”

“All the data I collect is piped to the database of Fuuka-san’s PC.”

“That’s right. I collect data on everyone and use it as reference for the next operation.”

“That’s amazing!” Yukiko stated.” You must be very good with computers. How did you learn to do that?”

“I’ve just… always been interested in them. As I used them, I started to get curious about their internal workings, so I began taking them apart, too. And after getting Lucia, it’s become much easier to figure things out.”

“Damn… that’s impressive. Can you read minds, too?”

“Maybe, but I’ve never actually tried… Hamuko-chan’s mind is a scary place.”

“You got that from Yukari,” Hamuko accused. Even if she didn’t entirely disagree. “But… maybe don’t try anyway.” Letting the one who scanned for them run into Thanatos was probably a very good way to screw herself over.

“That’s pretty impressive, and I have to wonder…” Yosuke continued. “Is there anything else you can do?”

“Well… I’ve been trying to learn how to cook… I could make something for you, if you want to try it.” Okay, so now Hamuko had to figure out how to tell Souji that his Magician was going to die. Because while they’d been working to make Fuuka’s cooking edible… it wasn’t quite there yet.

“Really? That’d be great! Unlike some people I could name.”

“What’re you looking at me for?” Chie complained.

“H-Hamu-tan? Sh-should we tell him?” Junpei asked, nervously.

“I don’t have the heart to…” Hamuko sighed. “Shinjiro-senpai?”

“D-don’t… It’ll lead to secondary casualties…” Next to him, Koromaru just whimpered.

“Is something wrong?” Souji asked. Hamuko just shook her head.

“Nothing but the whole situation…”

* * *

  
  


The next dead end they encountered was somewhat more interesting, in the sense that there was actually something there to see.

“This place… doesn’t it feel like there’s something out of place here?” Yukari asked.

Hamuko sighed. “Yukari, this whole place is strange. At least, if you were to ask anyone who wasn’t us.” And that would be kind of sad, if she hadn’t long come to terms with the fact that most people would never be able to understand the things she did.

“You know what I mean. It’s… different. You feel it too, right?”

“If something doesn’t feel right, you shouldn’t just ignore it,” Yosuke said.

“Huh?”

“My dad once felt something off in his hip. But, he decided to ignore it and went to work that day anyway. He’s always carrying heavy stuff, so just what you’d expect happened…”

“Are you done talking yet? … I wonder what’s causing this…”

“I think it’s just this,” Hamuko stated, picking up a pillow from a nearby chair. “See? It’s not pink, and that’s refreshing, but it’s kind of weird.”

“Yeah… I wonder why that is. Whatever. It’s not important, so I’m not going to let it bother me!”

* * *

  
  


The next set of chained doors was found soon afterwards. “The path ahead appears to still be long and arduous. You must impulsively, methodically pull the threads of destiny toward you.” Oh, and the mechanical voice was back, but that was just a normal annoyance of the Labyrinth.

“Too bad it’s not literal threads…” Kanji mumbled. “That’d be too easy.”

“Come on, Hamu-tan. Let’s hurry up and get this over with.”

“Don’t rush me!” She snapped back. “Besides, I can’t answer before I get the question!”

“Now, then, here is question number four.” And now it seemed like the questions were entering the realm of the absurd. Hamuko just shook her head and picked the only one that made sense.

“The sad thing is, this is still not the most surreal thing that’s ever happened to me…”

When they went through the door, there was another odd sound. “Oh?” Aigis paused. “I heard another odd unlocking noise in a northeast direction.”

“So, it’s near the stairs we came from,” Shinjiro stated. “Probably another door showed up.”

“Sh-Shin-chan…” Rei started, nervously, “Are you mad…?”

“Huh? I ain’t mad.”

“But your voice is scary! And so is your face!” Had it really taken her that long to notice? Then again, it was Rei…

“Oh… sorry. I’m always like this. I ain’t mad or nothin’, so don’t worry about it. And stop calling me Shin-chan.” Something told Hamuko there was about as much chance of that as there was for Souji to stop calling her ‘senpai’. And sure enough...

“O-Okay! Thanks, Shin-chan!”

Shinjiro noticed it, too. “...You’re not gonna stop, are you?”

* * *

  
  


“That sound we heard… I wonder if that’s to let us know the door’s here now,” Chie mused. “Do you think Shadows will attack us again?”

“I find that very likely,” Zen stated. “Fuuka. Tell us what is behind the door.”

“Of course. There do seem to be Shadows waiting beyond it… Please be careful!”

“Aren’t we always?” Hamuko asked. “...Wait, don’t answer that.” She didn’t think she’d like the answer.

On the bright side, when they opened the door, they were not immediately caught in a landslide this time. Instead, there was a giant humanoid Shadow of the Emperor Arcana. “It’s weak to fire!” Rise informed them.

Hamuko found herself grinning. Orpheus was on the same level as Hermes now, more than capable of keeping up with the others. And now she could show it with something that might not necessarily be left a scorch mark on the ground!

…Hopefully. Well, one way to find out. “Orpheus, Agilao!” Right, big Shadows weren’t necessarily knocked off their feet by the first attack they were vulnerable to. That was always annoying.

The Shadow waved its scepter over the group that was attacking it with flames. Immediately, Hamuko staggered. Something was wrong. She didn’t know what it was, but… well, it was listening to her instincts that had gotten her this far, so she stopped herself from casting another spell in time to see Amaterasu strike… and then shatter, Yukiko falling to the ground with a cry of pain.

That… probably wasn’t a good sign. “Junpei, Koro-chan, stop attacking!”

“What? Why!?”

“Because whatever it did, it triggered when Yukiko attacked it,” She replied. “I’m not sure if it’ll go away, but… go back to Yukari, ask her for Patra. I’ll cover everyone else.”

“This seems like a bad idea…”

“Do you have any better?” There was no answer. “Get going!”

What she wouldn’t give for her normal Persona loadout at the moment… Surt would practically ensure that whatever was in front of them would be burned a crisp. But here it was just her and Orpheus. And Thanatos, but she didn’t think he would be particularly helpful.

She still wasn’t entirely sure about this, but… “Agilao!” Another sharp chord, the Shadow flew back into the wall, and Hamuko’s world became pain.

Staggering, she gasped for breath, but didn’t let herself fall. In this situation, generally the right response would be to wait for someone to cast Diarama. But Hamuko was not the kind of person who backed down. And she had a better option.

Hamuko slipped her hand into her pocket, tightly gripping the stone she and her friends had found at the start of the first Labyrinth. It wasn’t an immediate fix, but she just needed enough to beat whatever that Shadow had done to her. And she knew when she had enough. She couldn’t say how she knew, but she did.

The second attack hit back just as badly as the first, but that was about when Koromaru came running back in followed by Cerberus, so Hamuko supposed that it all worked out.

Once the dust settled, Kanji was the first to speak. “So… that’s it, then?”

“I hope so…” Hamuko replied, leaning on her naginata. “I… don’t think I’ll be doing that again.”

“That was rather reckless, Yuki,” Mitsuru scolded her. “We can’t have our leader incapacitated.” She wasn’t entirely sure what to think of that, but decided just to be grateful that the others were actually worried about her.

* * *

  
  


The stairs were in the very next room, a small one where there was no sign of any Shadows. The group decided to take a break there so that Hamuko and Yukiko could recover from the battle.

“Aww… who’s a good boy, Koro-chan?” Shinjiro was petting the dog. Hamuko wasn’t sure why she expected anything else.

“You’re not gonna let anyone else have a turn with him, are you?” She asked. “C’mon, after everything that happened earlier…”

“That was entirely your fault and you know it.”

“Senpai. I’m giving you an order. Let me pet the dog.”

“While we’re at it…” Kanji began, “Can I pet him too?” Koromaru growled at him.

“Sounds like he’s not in the mood,” Shinjiro commented.

“That hurts deep…”

“I saw the whole thing…” And cue overdramatic Shadow bear. “How dare you try to lay your hands on some nobody dog when you have me!”

“Well, you don’t let me pet you, either!”

“Well, I’ve got hip girls to pet me, after all. Right, Hamu-chan?” Okay, as cute as he was…

“I’d rather not.” This was not something she felt like dealing with today. Or any day, really.

“Oh, well. I’ve got more. Ah, Chie-chan, Yuki-chan!”

“C’mere, Koro-chan!” Chie encouraged.

“Arf.” Koromaru happily walked up to Chie to be pet.

“He’s so smart! All my Muku ever does is drool everywhere.”

“Arf!”

“It seems he likes you very much, Chie-san. He’s asking for you to pet his head some more,” Aigis translated.

Souji sighed. “Dog people…”

“I feel I should take offense to that…” Hamuko muttered. What was wrong with dogs?

“You know, people who have dogs can usually tell what they mean,” Chie commented. “I completely understand my Muku! He’s always saying things like ‘Let me eat meat,’ and ‘Gimme some meat with the bone in.’”

“I think something’s getting lost in translation there,” Yosuke suggested.

“He understands my questions too, though. When I ask him ‘Beef or chicken?’ he answers with a bark.”

“That question makes no sense! Why do you and Muku only talk about meat!”

“They do say that dogs grow to be like their owner,” Souji pointed out.

“Akihiko-senpai’s pretty Bowl-lingual, too,” Junpei noted. Hamuko nodded.

“Yep. As you can see, he’s starting to get hit with withdrawal symptoms…”

“Aki, we’re not going to find a beef bowl shop here.”

“Ngh… Today’s their special beef bowl day…!”

“...You think he’s gonna be all right?” Yosuke asked. Hamuko shrugged.

“I mean, Shinjiro-senpai can probably handle him until they find something they want to fight about… so for the next five minutes or so.”

Next to them, Chie had stopped petting Koromaru. “Did he say… special beef bowl?”

“Enough with the drooling! Sheesh- wait, where did Partner and Yukiko go?”

Junpei paused to listen. “Apparently, he’s trying to tell her not to randomly rename dogs after Sengoku-era generals. Is that a big problem for her?”

“More than it should be…”

“...I can’t help but feel sorry for Koro-chan.” In that, it seemed, the whole group could agree.

...Well, all but one. “Hey… aren’t you all too engrossed in some ordinary dog?” Teddie complained. “He’s just some mutt! Not like he mutt-ers at all.”

“Yeah, well, you’re just some ordinary bear costume!” Chie snapped.

Kanji nodded. “He’s fluffier than you, too.” The bear’s only response to that was to grumble.

* * *

  
  


Souji was pretty sure the main reason the group normally came back from the Labyrinth was to rest and get food. Maybe. Hamuko wasn’t all that easy for him to understand, really…

But he was pretty sure the normal reason to leave the Labyrinth wasn’t ‘Koromaru Appreciation Hour’.

“Come here, Koromaru-kun.” Yukiko reached out a hand to the dog, who sniffed at it.

“Arf.”

“Good boy! You’re so smart!” Chie cheered.

“Don’t spoil him too much,” Hamuko said, but she was still smiling. “I still need him willing to fight, after all.”

“Yeah, I know… but if he’s this smart, maybe he’ll eventually learn to talk.”

“That would be impossible,” Aigis pointed out. “Canine vocal cords are too different from human ones.”

“Well, sure it’s impossible if you just give up like that!”

Ken sighed. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the problem…”

“Guys, guys! I’m right here!” Souji supposed someone should probably pay attention to Teddie… but it’d be fine. He’d have to learn how to get by without constant reassurance from everyone else eventually, right?

“If Koro-chan started talking, I don’t know if he’d be as cute,” Yukari said. “I mean, what if he started dropping dumb pick-up lines or something?”

“I like to think we’ve set a good enough example to avoid that, though,” Hamuko pointed out. “Satonaka, what do you think?”

“...We’ll, it’d remind me of this other animal we know…” As though Teddie wasn’t even there.

Souji felt a fuzzy blue paw tug at his sleeve. “Sensei… Sensei…! I’m just throwing this out there… but… does everyone here not love me?”

...Honestly, if Chie had a problem with the things Teddie said, she’d brought it upon herself.

“Of course we love you,” He told the bear, reminding himself not to add ‘Just not as much as Koro-chan’. That probably wouldn’t help.

“Oh, whew… I was afraid that there was some slim chance…”

Yukiko laughed. “Haha… There’s nothing to worry about, Teddie.”

“Y-Yuki-chan…”

“It’s just that Koromaru-kun’s cuter than you.”

Souji sighed. “Yukiko, I was trying to avoid saying that.”

“Oh… sorry.”

Koromaru walked up and nuzzled Teddie’s fur. The bear just shook his head. “I don’t want your pity…”

Okay, he needed a way to fix this, fast. Fortunately, he knew just what to do. “Teddie, have you seen Nanako?”

“Nana-chan? Last I saw, she was going to get some Yakisoba.”

“Why don’t you join her? I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.” The little Shadow’s face immediately brightened up.

“R-right. I’ll do that, then. I’m coming, Nana-chan!” Hopefully, that helped. Teddie and Nanako had a similar mentality, so there was a chance he’d end up regretting this, but whatever. They were adorable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This floor went a lot faster than I'd expected it would... Not enough chances to have Pharos or Nanako do something, either.
> 
> But there was Koro-chan being cute. So that's a plus.
> 
> A reminder that Teddie exists the way he does because he just wants to be loved and is surrounded by horrible influences. He will hopefully grow up one day.


	22. The Golden Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth discovers something, and recruits Rise to help her. A mystery, and a powerful Shadow to fight.

“Hm? This floor looks a little different.”

Just looking at it, Hamuko couldn’t help but agree with Akihiko. The pinks had mostly faded to various shades of purple, aside from marks in the floor tiles that appeared to be four-pointed stars. The sky itself seemed to be an odd nighttime view, covered in stars, and crossed with black-and-violet chains that occasionally hung down towards the ground, with a smiling plush doll wrapped up in them.

“It’s sort of creepy…” She commented. “But it’s also really pretty, isn’t it?”

“I wonder where the next room of destiny is,” Rei said.

“There is some more good news for you stray lambs.” Oh, and the voice was back. “The room that you are searching for is…” The voice paused, then added, “Quite a distance from here.” As if the odd pause had not occurred, it continued. “You can give it your all, or you might wish not to. But if you don’t, there is a possibility that danger might fall upon you. Or not.”

“So that means there’s danger ahead, right?” Yosuke checked. Hamuko nodded. Not that it was ever right to assume safety when surrounded by Shadows.

“Everyone, please be careful!” Fuuka pleaded. “There is a large number of FOEs on this floor!”

“Doesn’t something feel odd about it, though?” Nanako asked. “None of them are doing anything.”

“Really? Nothing at all?”

“She’s right. They aren’t moving or anything,” The teal-haired Navigator confirmed. “It’s sort of strange… you should still be careful, though.”

“Understood,” Hamuko nodded. “Say, where’s Rise-chan? I would have expected her to say something…”

“Oh, Elizabeth asked for her help with something. Neither of them told me what it was, though…” That was probably concerning, but they didn’t have time for that right now. There was a Labyrinth to explore.

* * *

  
  


Okay, so maybe taking a path that looped around back towards where the stairs were was a bad idea for making progress. Hamuko wasn’t entirely sure what she’d been thinking, but it probably had to do with this path somehow feeling safer.

Which made sense, because there hadn’t been any Shadows down it. But still.

Either way, upon getting there, Koromaru began to bark excitedly.

“Huh? What’s gotten into him all of a sudden?” Yosuke asked.

“This isn’t really normal for him…” Hamuko agreed, as she watched the dog pace back and forth. “Is there something there, Koro-chan?”

“Arf!” Koromaru nodded, and began digging at a small hole in the wall. It took a few minutes, but eventually he emerged with… some kind of leotard.

“No.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Hamuko complained.

“You didn’t have to.”

...Was she really that predictable? She sighed and decided to just pet the dog. At least he appreciated her fashion sense....

* * *

  
  


As the group walked back down the hallways of the Labyrinth, Yosuke suddenly came to a halt. “...Hold on a second.”

“Huh? What is it, Yosuke?” Chie asked.

“Is it just me… or do you guys get the feeling that we’re being watched?”

Shinjiro shrugged. “It’s probably just that FOE over there.” Hamuko got the feeling that maybe her teammates were a little too jaded to giant enemies they had little hope of defeating. She decided to blame the Reaper.

“...Aragaki-san, how long was that there?” Souji asked, actually sounding sort of nervous.

“I dunno, this whole time? It was there when we came this way before, too...”

“I think this is the kind of thing you should have mentioned once you noticed it…” The other Wild Card stated.

“...It doesn’t look like the other kinds we’ve seen,” Yukiko noted. “Maybe. I can’t really see it very well, but it doesn’t look as colorful.”

“No color at all, actually,” Hamuko added. “Is this what Fuuka-chan and Nanako-chan were talking about, do you think?”

“Yeah, I think so. It ain’t moving around, or anything.”

“This is the only way we have left to go forward,” Aigis declared. “It appears we must take our chances with the FOE.”

“Right…” Hamuko sighed, and stepped forward. No sign of movement from the FOE. Emboldened, she took a few more steps.

“I don’t think this will work as well as you hope it will,” Pharos said, manifesting besides her.

“It’s not close enough to attack me, is it?” She asked.

“No, but… it is blocking the path.”

“Huh?” A quick glance upward was enough to confirm it. The only way forward was through the black-and-gray cupid. “Oh…”

“Yeah, so, could you come back now?” Shinjiro called over. “I don’t like the look of that thing.”

“If that’s so, you should have mentioned it the first time!” She replied. It was true that she sometimes seemed to be the only member of SEES with basic communication skills, but what kind of person ignored something potentially life-threatening?

...The kind of person she had a crush on, apparently. She wasn’t sure just what that said about her, and she was sort of scared to find out.

She needed to find a way past the FOE for the others that preferably would not involve tearing it apart with a Persona that she couldn’t control, and that only Yukari definitely knew she had. She looked farther up in order to find the answer… and met two gleaming sets of eyes.

Immediately, the FOE started charging at her. “Hamuko, look away!” Pharos ordered. She obeyed, stepping out of the path of the cupid while turning back towards the others.

The Shadow stopped moving forward. “...So, this thing apparently responds to eye contact? That’s… different.”

“Heh, talk about havin’ guts,” Kanji remarked.

Akihiko nodded. “Yeah, I agree. I kind of like this thing.”

Mitsuru gave him a look. “Akihiko.”

“I know…”

“It’s in a place you can all get past it, now,” Pharos stated. “Don’t look directly at it, and you should be fine.” So now eye contact was going to be highly dangerous… fun.

* * *

  
  


“Ah, what good timing…” Elizabeth greeted the group as they came out of the Labyrinth, Rise following her.

“I told you they would be here…” The first year girl muttered, before adding, “Tell them what happened.”

“Ah, yes… the incident occurred while you were all in the Labyrinth. I was playing around- I mean, continuing my research… when I happened upon a very peculiar spacial void.”

“She got me to look at it,” Rise added. “She says she’s been interested in these kinds of readings for a long time.”

“Strangely enough, though, when I reached for it, it expelled this strange spherical object and then disappeared.” Elizabeth held up an orb that was the same Velvet blue as her clothing.

Hamuko blinked. “It probably says a lot about me that I’m not questioning this. But… what does that have to do with the rest of us?”

“I have procured Miss Kujikawa’s services in scanning the Labyrinths, and she has discovered similar readings in their depths.”

“More specifically, in the depths of You in Wonderland. It wasn’t there before you all came out of it, though… and there’s a very strong Shadow that’s taken her place.”

“By strong, you mean…”

“Bring electricity.”

“Right. Thanks.” Well, Hamuko supposed she knew what she was doing later. Once everyone had had the chance to rest for a bit.

* * *

  
  


“You think so too!? Oh, but he’s off limits, okay?”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Yukari insisted. “I just said he seems like a trustworthy leader.”

“What are you talking about?” Hamuko asked.

“Oh, Hamuko-senpai. We were just talking about how cool Souji-senpai is. Well… when he’s not just trying to annoy us, anyway.”

“Like I just said, that’s not what I meant!”

Fuuka giggled. “Yes, but it’s like with Hamuko-chan- something you can’t help but be conscious of.”

Hamuko sighed. “Those are called Social Links. It’s not really anything about us in particular… we can’t really help it.” As nice as it would be to be truly naturally charismatic…. That didn’t seem like it was happening.

“It’s more than that, though,” The older scanner stated. “Souji-kun, Yosuke-kun, and Kanji-kun… We don’t have anyone like them, so they stand out.”

“Are you sure?” The Wild Card asked. “Vice Leader and I have the same power, Hanamura’s similar enough to Junpei to be scary, and Kanji-kun’s basically a younger Shinjiro-senpai.”

Chie nodded. “Yeah. Yosuke’s just Yosuke, you know?”

“Mm-hm, he’s very Yosuke-kun,” Yukiko agreed.

Yukari laughed. “Ahaha, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I do not think I understand the subject of this conversation,” Aigis stated.

“Hmm…” Naoto tried to explain. “It’s like a comparative analysis of people, particularly the boys.”

“Oh, yeah. What do you think about the guys on our team?” Yukari asked. “I’m kinda curious.”

Chie crossed her arms. “Hmm… well… Koro-chan is smart!”

“You’re starting with Koro-chan?”

“Ken-kun’s very polite and proper, for an elementary school student,” Yukiko spoke up.

“That’s still not really what I was asking… I meant the guys. You know, Junpei, Akihiko-senpai, Shinjiro-senpai?”

“Sanada-san’s definitely a real pretty boy,” Rise said. “But he’s kind of disappointing, too…”

“He just doesn’t know how to talk to people,” Hamuko shrugged. “I’m not sure how he managed to get this far without picking up any social skills, but it happened.”

“What about Shinjiro-san?” Aigis asked.

“Hmm, he seems quiet,” Chie decided. “I don’t think I have an opinion on him yet. He seems like a nice guy, at least!”

Rise nodded. “Yeah, he seems really cool.”

“He is,” Hamuko agreed. “Though he doesn’t like to admit it. He’s really good with animals, and he can cook, too. He’s been trying to teach Fuuka-chan, but… that bit’s not going so well. Though it’s better than when I tried…” It probably didn’t help that she couldn’t make anything below a certain sugar content.

“I wouldn’t have guessed that,” Naoto commented.

“You never really know about someone unless you talk to them, huh?” Yukiko remarked. “It sounds like you know Aragaki-san pretty well.” Well, yes. That was what Social Links were even for.

“I like to think so. I know a lot of people say he’s scary, but… I don’t really get that at all from him. Shinjiro-senpai is Shinjiro-senpai. There’s nothing else to it.”

Yukari sighed. “Our leader, everybody.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“...Have you asked him out yet?” Chie asked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Honestly, one of these days, she was going to use Thanatos to intimidate someone else and then use an Evoker before switching back to Orpheus. Well, no reason to worry about that before it happened. If it did. She’d been doing well at avoiding that so far.

Yukari sighed. “You know, the more you say that, the less anyone’s going to believe you.”

Hamuko didn’t think she was really losing anything there. None of them believed her anyway. So she just shrugged and started eating her yakitori.

* * *

  
  


“No… It’s not a matter of whether the TV is CRT or flat-panel,” Naoto tried to explain.

“What? But if you went into those slim TVs, you’d stick out from the back, right?” Junpei asked. Souji wasn’t entirely sure that Hamuko’s Magician was getting the base concept.

“As I’ve said, the power is to enter a world connected from the TV, not to punch through TVs.”

“It’s the world part I keep getting hung up on. Does it have to do with the connection or something? Or is it microchips? You don’t get electrocuted?”

“...It has nothing to do with the model of TV, or its amperage. Though I can empathize… I had a hard time coming to grips with it until I experienced it for myself…”

“It’s not that difficult to me,” Hamuko shrugged. “You know how only people like us are active in the Dark Hour? It just so happens that Personas are also a way to use TVs as portals… apparently. And it’s strange to us, because we’ve never done it before. It’s like how most people are disoriented their first few nights in the Dark Hour.”

“Hm… yeah, that makes sense… thanks, Hamu-tan.”

“It’s not a problem.” She turned to Souji. “Oh, Vice Leader. Could you meet me in front of the entrance to You in Wonderland later? There’s something I’d like to talk about.” He nodded. Yeah, he could do that.

“Souji.” Oh, and Zen wanted to talk, apparently. “I have been speaking with some of the others, and I am wondering if you could answer this… what is the world of celebrities?”

“A place where cute girls gather… at least, if you pay attention to Teddie and Yosuke.”

“I see…” The boy looked down, before stating, “If there are many Reis there, it would quickly run out of food.”

“...Many different girls.” Which really shouldn’t have needed saying, but this had been a very strange day.

“Oh, hey Zen,” Junpei looked up, having just noticed him. “You alright not having Rei-chan with you?”

“I protect Rei in the Labyrinths, but there’s no danger here. And you are looking after her as well. I’m sure Rei enjoys your company. She’s been with me for a very long time, anyway…”

“Yeah, but she probably wants to hang out with you too, you know?” Hamuko pointed out. “When the two of you are apart… you’re all she ever talks about.”

“...I don’t know about that…”

“That’s just because you’re never there,” She shrugged. “Say… when I have my talk with Vice Leader later, could you come along, and bring Rei-chan, too? We’ll be in front of You in Wonderland.”

...Okay, what, exactly, had he agreed to?

* * *

  
  


“So, you want to investigate the odd dimensional rift Elizabeth found… that has a large Shadow only weak to electricity, which will inevitably try to attack us... With just the six of us,” Souji stated, looking at Hamuko like she was insane.

She ignored that part. She was used to people questioning her sanity, and with Thanatos, she honestly couldn’t blame them. “Look, I know this sounds really bad, but there’s logic behind it.”

Shinjiro groaned. “This is gonna end up like when Aki decides to… well, to do anything, isn’t it?”

“Akihiko-senpai’s made good decisions before,” She said. “He’s friends with you, isn’t he?”

“...Sort of proving my point there.”

“You’re the only person here who thinks that.” Hamuko shook her head. This wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Anyway, I was thinking that, with how powerful this Shadow apparently is, we should just show up with the best or not at all.”

“How are we the best, though?” Yukiko asked.

“Well, you’re our most powerful healer,” She replied. “Shinjiro-senpai’s the most physically powerful of us, Zen-kun and Rei-chan are basically required, and Vice Leader can stun it with electricity. And I’ve got… let’s call it my last resort.”

“Well, that’s ominous…” Souji muttered. She’d scold him for it if that hadn’t been the exact tone she’d been going for. “Are the others at least allowed to know where we are?”

“We’ve got your Navigator to help, she knows where the weak points are. And I’ve taken on worse odds with less people before, so we know we’ve got a chance.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring…” But they all still agreed to follow her. She knew they would. It was just a feeling she’d gotten, that this was what they were meant to do.

Why that was… well, she’d simply have to figure that out.

* * *

  
  


Of all the possible Shadows for the six of them to face at the bottom of the first Labyrinth, a giant golden beetle of the Emperor Arcana wasn’t something Hamuko had expected, though in hindsight, it really should have been.

“Another one of these…” She sighed. “I don’t know what I was expecting.” Upon hearing her voice, the beetle startled, before flying right at them.

Thankfully, she had a way of dealing with this kind of thing. It was something Yatagarasu gave her- the faster she moved, the stronger she got. And her fireballs were fast. It wasn’t enough to destroy the beetle, but it was staggered, and that would have to be good enough.

Souji followed up with a powerful blast of electricity, and this brought the Shadow to a complete stop. For about five seconds. Once it started moving again, Hamuko had to leap to avoid a horn that lunged straight towards her, while also attempting to hit it with her naginata.

The attempted acrobatics caused her to lose her balance, and she quickly moved her weapon so that she could steady herself with it. Not for long, though- she couldn’t let herself lose momentum. She spun around, slashing as quickly as she could.

There was barely a scratch on the beetle’s shell. Because of course it resisted all things physical. Or that wasn’t fire or electricity.

This was about the point where the bug decided to start thrashing around to try and trample all of them. Not that it managed to. Apparently, despite its incredible resistances, Shinjiro and Castor were still more than powerful enough to knock it away.

Souji and Zen proceeded to throw large amounts of lightning at the Shadow. At this point, Hamuko decided to back away slowly and maybe throw a few fireballs if it showed signs of heading in her direction. Because she did not want to touch that. She had some sense of self-preservation.

“May I…?” Yukiko asked, looking at the golden creature and readying her fan.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Zen replied.

Souji nodded. “If she thinks she can do it, then she can. And you’ll want to see this- it’s quite the spectacle.”

“...Very well. If that is what she wishes.” The lightning died away.

Yukiko stepped up and hurled her fan at the golden insect. Which exploded. Hamuko wasn’t sure whether she should be jealous or terrified.

Or both. Both was also good.

When the last bits of the giant beetle finally faded into the ether, Rise’s voice sounded in the party’s ears. “You did it!”

“That was amazing, Big Bro!” Nanako added. None of them were entirely sure when she’d showed up, but they all decided not to question it. “You’re so cool…”

“Well, now that the Shadow’s gone, let’s check what’s inside!”

Hamuko nodded. “Right. We’ll get right on that.” The gates opened the same way that they did before, allowing the six of them into the room where the Queen of Hearts had been.

Where the Queen had stood was now an odd, black void with a faint glow within. Next to Hamuko, Souji adjusted his glasses. “Yuki-senpai, do you mind if I…?”

She shook her head. It didn’t really matter to her who collected the thing that Elizabeth wanted, only that it was collected. “Go ahead.”

“Did Elizabeth really stick her hand in this thing?” Shinjiro asked. “That just seems like a bad idea to me.”

“Velvet Room people are strange,” Souji shrugged, already reaching out his hand. “It should be fine.”

Once his hand was fully inside it, the glow sparked to full life, showing a beautiful golden color. Rings of light surrounded it, and it slowly shrank down into an orb of the same shade resting in Souji’s hand.

“What could this sphere be?” Zen asked. “It’s odd, but… there is something about it. It is… important, in some way.”

“I feel it, too,” Rise said. “There’s a really strong force coming from it. Still… I don’t think there’s anything left here for you to investigate. You all might as well leave the Labyrinth now.”

Souji sighed. “I wish we had Goho-Ms here…”

Hamuko turned to him. “What’s a Goho-M?”

“Something that does what Teddie does.” Okay, yes, that would be useful. But they didn’t have that, so they’d have to walk back out.

So her plan hadn’t been perfectly made...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Yes, that was how the beetle was finally defeated. I couldn't have timed that any better.
> 
> I'm not sure if there's anything missing from the P4 side, because my P4 side file keeps getting blindsided by rare Shadows with Megido and I wanted to get this chapter out before PQ2 takes over my life. Because Persona Q was what first got me into Persona- I saw the box art, thought it was cool, bought myself a Vita a year later because I'd fallen in love with the characters. It was also my introduction to Etrian Odyssey style games.
> 
> And now it's getting a sequel. It might be a while before my 3DS does anything else. By which I mean a few weeks.
> 
> ...Also, can I just mention that floors 3 and 4 of the Group Date Cafe are my absolute favorite levels, design-wise? Because it's all just... so beautiful. Just... stand next to the river, and look up, and it's amazing.


	23. The World's Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After turning in the orb to Elizabeth, it is now time to return to the Labyrinth. As usual, there are lots of FOEs there. As usual, displays of teamwork are nonexistent.
> 
> A bit less usually, this somehow ends in a semi-philosophical conversation.

“So, we got what you asked us for,” Souji stated, holding out the golden orb.

“Ah, so this sphere did appear…” She took the item and turned it over, staring intently into it. “As I gaze into this ball, I feel a very strange sensation coming over me.”

“Oh, so it’s not just me,” Rise commented. “It’s… sort of like life energy, isn’t it?”

Hamuko glanced at the object. She couldn’t feel anything special about it. “What do you mean?”

“She means that it carries a feeling of vitality,” Elizabeth elaborated. “The origin of every life form… the natural order in which the seasons are repeated over and over… I have decided. This sphere will be called the Sphere of Fecundity. I will not hear any objections against it. Please remember that.”

Upon hearing that, Souji looked distinctly irritated. Hamuko couldn’t blame him. He’d been the one to discover it, after all.

“So, is this helpful for… whatever you’re doing?” She asked, hoping that she hadn’t just contributed to some sort of disaster.

“Yes, I’m sure it will be. Now, your friends have most likely begun to wonder where you are, so you should probably go and reunite with them.”

Well, when the alternative was hanging around her… it really wasn’t a hard choice to make.

* * *

  
  


Once they were back with their friends, and in the proper Labyrinth, the group continued onward. They seemed to be walking along a river filled with… well, probably not water, but it reflected the ‘sky’ above.

There seemed to be a path on both sides, but Hamuko couldn’t tell how they were supposed to reach the other side of the river. She assumed, however, that it had something to do with whatever was on the other side of the most recent door they had found.

Given that she could see the doors of the next Selection Room of Destiny on the other side, it seemed to be a safe bet.

“You should all be careful,” Fuuka warned them. “There’s two FOEs in that room, and they’re both facing the same direction.”

“Right.” Because of course there was. “Okay, one of us will hold eye contact for as long as necessary, the rest of us will not look away from the floor.”

A few days ago, Hamuko would never have thought that a strategy like this one would need to be made. But, well… plans could change.

“This seems… dangerous,” Mitsuru pointed out. She shrugged.

“Unless you have a better idea for how to get across this river…”

“Doesn’t the school have a crafts room?” Yosuke suggested. “We could probably get some wood planks and stuff, and build a bridge or something.”

Souji nodded. “If the crafts room doesn’t have it, the Drama Club will. Of course, we’d need to be careful about Shadows…” Okay, that was a better idea.

“...Worst case, we could probably just get our ice users to handle it, actually. Now, slipping off might be a bit of a problem…” But, well, it was still preferable to the alternative.

Though that wasn’t saying much. Anything would be preferable to that.

* * *

  
  


One frozen ice bridge later, and they were again in front of a large door that was far too pink for Hamuko’s tastes. It didn’t even fit in with the aesthetic of the rest of the Labyrinth anymore.

“I take it this means it’ll look the same inside,” She sighed.

“One way to find out,” Junpei pointed out. All of them agreeing that they had no other choice, they ended up opening the door.

Like always, the mechanical voice greeted them. “The time may be nigh for the stray lambs to grow up to stray sheep. But you cannot relax. Your foes and the questions of destiny become fierce with each encounter. Keep that in mind.”

“Yes, sir!” Yukiko declared, giving an odd little salute.

“I don’t think it cares if you talk back to it,” Chie sighed.

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t polite,” Souji shrugged.

“Presenting: question number five.” Oh, good, it was back to being somewhat normal. Hamuko pressed the option that said she enjoyed relaxing at a cafe and left it at that.

...This was becoming majorly less torturous than it had been at the start. Either things were getting better, or she was beginning to get used to them.

She wasn’t sure which one would be better. Probably not a good sign.

* * *

  
  


“Huh… So these guys can’t swim, huh?” Chie commented, looking across the pool of water at the FOE that was splashing at it furiously trying to get to her.

“We already have the path,” Souji groaned, before turning to Hamuko. “Yuki-senpai, do something.”

“Hey, Yukari, do you think you could shoot it from here?”

“I don’t have enough arrows.”

“No, I mean, control Chie.”

“Vice Leader, if none of your group knows how to handle Satonaka-san, what makes you think I have any idea?” Really, that seemed like a simple enough concept to her.

“You have to deal with Sanada-san, don’t you?” Okay, that was a good point… if not for the fact that she was still unhappy about him calling her 'Senpai'. And the other thing...

“The only person who can control him for sure is Mitsuru-senpai, and I’m pretty sure that’s just because he’s weak to ice. Shinjiro-senpai can manage it about half the time, the other half they’re just enabling each other.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“I’m pretty sure that the only thing keeping us a functional team is the fact that, at the end of the day, we still have to live together,” She shrugged. Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but so long as it worked… “When you can’t avoid someone, there really is no other choice but to work things out.”

“So you say…” Yukari sighed. “If not for the fact that none of the upperclassmen will say anything to us.”

Hamuko rolled her eyes. “Yukari. They don’t know how to people. I thought you’d noticed this by now.” Sure, they could hide it pretty well, but… the fact that they’d managed to get through life without any sort of communication skills was baffling.

“...I’ll take your word for it.” Okay, she took it back. Some days, ‘functional’ really was a stretch.

* * *

  
  


After convincing Chie-san not to taunt the poor FOE, they passed the spot where it had been blocking. Off to the side of the room, there was a little doll seated on one of the chairs.

Around its neck was a pendant set with a lightly shimmering blue-silver stone.

“This doll looks… lonely, somehow,” Ken commented, picking it up. It was something about the pendant, he thought. Like it was meant to be part of a matched set.

Hamuko-san took the time to look at it. “Yeah… you’re right.”

“Hey, it’s holding a box,” Chie-san realized. “What do you think’s inside? Food, maybe? Oh, I hope it’s meat!”

“U-um… I don’t think that’s it…” Ken mumbled.

Yosuke-san sighed. “Ignore her. She just has a powerful appetite.”

“Oh, okay…” He fumbled at the box, but the lid didn’t move. “I don’t think it’s going to open…”

“So, there’s nothing there?” Nanako asked. “That seems sad…”

“Yeah, but if there really isn’t anything here…” Chie-san shrugged, before turning to him. “C’mon, Ken-kun, let’s go.”

“Y-yeah…” But, somehow, he still couldn’t bring himself to put the doll back. There was just something about it…

He’d take it with him. And maybe, he just might be able to figure out whatever it was. And even if it didn’t… at least the doll wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

* * *

  
  


“There was something intriguing about that question earlier,” Naoto commented.

“Which one?” Hamuko asked. “There’s been a lot of questions.”

Akihiko sighed. “Yeah. I don’t care if it’s destiny or not. When are they gonna end?”

“There, there. Why don’t you use this opportunity to learn about how girls think, Akihiko-san? It might help you find your destined partner… just like me and Chidorita! Heehee!”

“Destined partners, huh?” Yukari paused, before saying, “Even this Junpei here found his, so there really might be one for you somewhere in the world.”

Aigis nodded. “Yes, spring did indeed come, even for this Junpei-san.”

“Hey, why are you calling me ‘this Junpei?’”

“Sorry, would ‘that Junpei’ work better?”

“Just how low am I on your personal totem pole!? I’m gonna invoke the Have Pity Ordinance!”

Hamuko sighed. “Junpei, I already told you, I’m not fighting your battles for you.” It was bad enough he’d tried to give Aigis false information, but then he’d turned to her for help… She needed best friends that weren’t constantly at each other’s throats.

Maybe continuing the previous line of discussion would be best. “...Go on, Naoto-kun. Which question were you talking about?”

“...Any of them, really… they seem to be keenly asked. They truly highlight the difference between men’s and women’s viewpoints.”

“From which viewpoint would you answer the questions, Naoto-san?” Aigis asked. Hamuko sighed, and reminded herself that the robot still needed lessons on tact. Preferably before she offended the scary-strong Persona User that could use every element at once.

“Which…? Oh.”

“I believe that is a boy’s uniform, but I do not know why you are wearing it.”

“That’s…”

Shinjiro sighed. “People can wear what they want. Just leave it.”

“I see. I should avoid the topic of clothing. It is a ‘minefield.’” All things considered… there were probably worse lessons she could have taken from that.

“No, um… The reason isn’t really so significant…” Naoto stammered, pulling the rim of her cap over her eyes.

“Wait, you’re a girl!?” Junpei asked. Hamuko sighed.

“Ignore him. He’s an idiot.”

“Really, Hamu-tan!?”

“Remember when Mitsuru-senpai first made me the leader, and you objected because I was a girl? I do!”

“Can’t you just let that go already…?”

“Male or female is irrelevant in battle,” Mitsuru stated. “The same goes for clothing. Such distinctions are antiquated.”

“...That’s right. I think the same thing.” Naoto was actually looking at all of them again. Probably a good sign.

“Th-that wasn’t what I was getting at, really!” Junpei protested. “Besides, I wasn’t the only one confused, right?”

“And yet, somehow, the rest of us had the tact not to bring it up,” Yukari pointed out. “...Besides Aigis.”

“That- well… Still, I’m surprised you could tell Nao-cakes was a girl, Shinjiro-san.”

“N-Nao-cakes!?” The girl in question sputtered.

“Huh? You can tell just by looking at her.”

“I couldn’t…” Kanji mumbled. “For the longest time… I had no damn idea…” Souji sighed.

“Don’t worry about it. Even if you did cause the most embarrassing week of our lives…” He ducked a swing of a metal implement. “...Kanji? Your chair’s melting again.”

“R-right.” At this point, Koromaru walked up to sit at the boy’s feet. “Huh, are you trying to cheer me up, boy? Can I pet you?” And this was when the dog started growling.

“It seems he does not wish to receive pets,” Aigis stated. Right. Hamuko definitely needed to get on teaching her about the whole ‘tact’ thing.

“You didn’t hafta ram it home…”

* * *

  
  


“Sensei! Nana-chan! Over here!” Souji turned to see Teddie gesturing for him and Nanako to join a group of their friends. Figuring it was better than wandering the festival by themselves, he turned to his sister.

“Do you want to spend time with Teddie for a bit?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Ken-kun and Pharos-kun are fun, but Teddie’s Teddie. There’s a lot he can do that they can’t!” The two of them walked over to join the others.   
“So, what are you eating?”

“It’s yakisoba! The stuff here is better than what they have at Junes! That stuff is all dry!”

“Dry yakisoba? You guys sure you’re using oil?” Shinjiro asked.

“Just a teensy bit. Junes’ thing recently has been cutting costs.”

“Makin’ the food taste like such crap that no one buys it seems to be defeating the point… Alright, look. I’ll give you some tips on how to keep it moist even without oil.”

“As you can see, the nickname ‘SEES den mother’ isn’t just for show,” Aigis commented.

“...You know what, I take it back.”

Hamuko rolled her eyes. “Come on, Shinjiro-senpai, be nice.”

“I don’t do nice.”

“Sure you don’t.” Souji had not been aware that so much sarcasm could fit in a single sentence before.

“That’s right…” Naoto realized. “Yuki-san mentioned that you were good at cooking.”

“Not that good. I’m just average.” He turned to Hamuko. “Quit saying these kinds of things.”

“Never. You should take a bit more pride in your work- you’re better than anyone else in SEES.”

“Average?” Teddie turned to face Souji, a look of honest confusion on his face. “Sensei, what’s ‘average’?”

“Normal. So, for cooking, that would be somewhere between what I do… and Yukiko.”

“Oh. I guess I don’t really know what’s average, then…”

“I confess, without Yuki-san telling me beforehand, I wouldn’t have expected that of you. I suppose this proves how narrow-minded I can be.”

“...I’m pretty sure it ain’t that big a deal.”

“But it is… Just as Mitsuru-san said earlier, it’s made a deep impression on me. I try to live by the principle that gender discrimination is antiquated, but part of me may have given up…” Right. Souji reminded himself to work on her Social Link a bit more once they got back. Maybe that would help to get at the problem.

“...That so?”

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go on like that.”

“You are fighting things other than Shadows, aren’t you, Naoto-san?” Aigis questioned.

“Aigis-san… Hmm. Perhaps what I’m struggling against could more properly be called the world’s Shadows.”

“...And everyone fights em.”

“Yes… So I believe.”

“I’m… not really sure what’s going on,” Nanako said. “Big Bro, do you know what they mean?”

“I think that Naoto and Aragaki-san have both been judged by their appearances a lot. They don’t quite fit with how everyone else thinks the world should work.”

“Oh… but that’s silly, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay, Nana-chan. I don’t understand either,” Teddie admitted. “I don’t have a clue what Nao-chan is talking about!”

Souji sighed. As refreshing as their personalities could be, it got grating at times. “Okay, I’ll try to explain it again…” Now, how was he supposed to explain it without talking to Teddie about how he was a Shadow?

Hamuko seemed to be taking to the current line of discussion a lot better than they were. “Okay, then. I’ll be rooting for you both, Naoto-kun, Shinjiro-senpai!”

Gods save him from terrifying, overly-energetic girls with superpowers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Yes, this was, in fact, my first reaction to seeing that those FOEs couldn't cross water. Somehow, I don't think that says good things.
> 
> Modifying requests is fun! All that this one really does is cut out the need to take said request later. And, yes, the pendant color is important, just it won't be apparent for a very long time.
> 
> I find it funny that the closest things I've managed to get in terms of 'moments with my ship' for the past few chapters have all taken place outside of the romance-based Labyrinth. But then, Hamuko has better things to do in the Labyrinth, such as keep her friends from killing each other. Because SEES is not functional in the slightest.


	24. Side Path

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken finds a friend for the doll he picked up earlier, and gets something nice in return. Hamuko takes the time to think about something she finds concerning.
> 
> And then the group gets hopelessly sidetracked.

Eventually, it got to the point where there were so many FOEs it was no longer safe to look away from the ground. Ken hugged the doll he’d found tightly to himself and pretended that he wasn’t all that bothered by it.

At the front of the group, Hamuko-san stopped. “Hey, Ken-kun?”

“What is it?” He asked.

“Do you still have that doll you picked up earlier?” Unable to help himself, he looked up to see another doll sitting in a nearby chair, this one wearing a pendant with a shimmering gold-orange stone.

“Y-yeah, I have it. They must have been part of a set, and then they got separated for some reason…” Just thinking about it… that was really sad.

It had been sort of nice having something to hold onto, but… “Maybe they should go right next to each other,” Yukiko-san suggested.

“Y-yeah.” He stepped up to the chair and set the doll with the silver pendant next to the other. As soon as he stepped away, both of the pendants started glowing even more brightly.

“Wh-what’s going on!?” Chie-san panicked. “If it’s a ghost, or something spooky, I’m out of here!”

“Don’t worry, Chie. It’s just a paranormal phenomenon.”

“That counts!”

“...It’s not that strange,” Hamuko-san stated. “Ken-kun, I think they want to thank you.”

“Huh?” Now that he thought about it… the box that the doll he’d been carrying was holding was now open. For a moment, he wondered if it would be okay to take whatever was inside… and then he looked at the dolls’ faces.

They seemed strangely happy… “Th-thank you.” It was a small crystal bottle, that held an odd liquid inside.

It took a few moments for Ken to recognize it as Soma. Hamuko-san didn’t hand out the liquid magic very often, preferring to keep it for emergencies. He’d follow her example. “...I hope you two get along. Make sure you don’t get separated again!”

“You have a kind heart, Ken-kun,” Yukiko-san commented.

“N-no, I’m really…” Well. It wasn’t something he could bring himself to say. But it was also sort of embarrassing, to have someone just say that.

He settled for looking back at the ground and pretending that he was the only one there.

* * *

  
  


There were many things that Hamuko had picked up over her time of being a Wild Card. Not as anything that she’d aimed for, but had simply just happened. Personas, Social Links, basic knowledge of just about every myth out there… and the ability to read tarot cards.

The last two of these had come from long conversations with Theo while she was picking out Personas to fuse and dealing with whatever inane request he chose to give her, as she really had nothing better to do in order to fill the silence, but it meant she knew a lot about how to read people.

The people she surrounded herself with… their Arcanas, and actions, and Personas, when applicable, always added up to provide a cohesive image of who that person was. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, and when several people knew each other, it could be particularly interesting to see how the pieces fit together.

Most of the time. Sometimes, it was just… concerning. There were things that she thought she might be better off not knowing.

Even then, though, curiosity brought her right back around again, and now she found herself shuffling a tarot deck once more.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she kept doing it, when she just kept drawing the same cards. The Moon, the Tower, and Justice, reversed. It also wasn’t a possibility she was entirely unaware of, but… well, maybe that was the point of being able to read the future, that she might be able to change it.

...Well. When she was actually in a position to do something about it, at least. Right then, she was busy making plans to blindly navigate a long hallway. Or maybe to bypass it. Because this Labyrinth design made no sense.

She wondered if Souji usually had to deal with this kind of thing…

* * *

  
  


“Yuki-senpai?” Souji asked, wondering if their temporary leader had gone more insane than usual?

“What is it? And don’t call me that!” He ignored the second part.

“What are you doing to that wall? There’s an FOE behind it.”

“That’s the point. That means there’s probably something hiding there!”

Yukari sighed. “This is going to turn out like that floor with all the rare Shadows, isn’t it?”

“What about the floor with no Shadows?” Ken suggested.

Junpei shrugged. “I dunno, I kind of liked the one with all the treasure.” Given that Souji knew the most dangerous of the Shadows liked to hide in boxes, he had a pretty good idea what they were talking about. There was a reason they all knew not to open those unless Teddie or Rise had cleared them.

So he signalled for the bear to prepare an escape for them. Just in case.

“Still, it’s not that it mattered, right?” Yukari pointed out. “Whatever type of floor it was, the Reaper always showed up in the end.”

“It’s not that strange, though,” Hamuko said. “I mean, no matter what, it always comes around if we take too long. We just had a shorter time limit, that’s all.”

To Souji, Tartarus sounded like a very scary place. At least with Death hiding in boxes, they could choose to just turn away and never open them.

...Then again, he supposed that the dungeons he explored came with their own innate time limit. So it wasn’t like there wasn’t a tradeoff.

“We’re still nowhere close to catching up to it, though…” Akihiko sighed, before turning to Souji. “Hey, Vice Leader?”

“What is it? And don’t call me that.” Bad enough that Hamuko was using it, it didn’t need to spread to everyone else, too.

“It’s just… how did all of you get so strong?” He wasn’t sure what the question was.

“I’m… not sure what you mean.”

“Well, it’s just… you’re all a lot stronger than we are. Except maybe Shinji, and he’s…” They both glanced at where their leader seemed to have convinced Shinjiro to wage war on the wall in her stead. “...Well, if it’s not me, Ken, or Hamuko, good luck getting him to do anything.”

“I don’t really know what to say here,” Souji shrugged. “It’s just… we kept doing things, and that made us stronger. Some of my smaller Personas, I outgrew pretty quickly, but Izanagi’s always managed to keep up with me… I guess that’s because he’s my real Persona. But even with the ones that fell behind… they just need a bit of effort to catch up, you know?”

“I-I guess…” Still, he didn’t look entirely sure about it. “So… you’ve never had to deal with a Persona that just… couldn’t get stronger?”

“No. Even here, our Personas grow alongside us. Can’t you feel it?” He’d never had a problem reading how his other aspects would do best in a fight, or just how quickly they were gaining power. It hadn’t occurred to him that not everyone might have the same gift.

Then again, most of the people here hadn’t started as Wild Cards to begin with.

Either way, the conversation ended there, as the poor wall had finally decided it had enough and came crashing to the ground. Entire minutes of Souji’s life that he would never get back.

And it didn’t even end there. “Hey, look! There’s a door!” Hamuko called back to the rest of them.

Maybe they’d run into one of those Magus Shadows soon… He could use something to electrocute.

* * *

  
  


“Look, there are three FOEs here,” Yukiko noted. Hamuko sighed. She’d been hoping for just a hidden treasure box or something, not… whatever puzzle this was going to turn out to be.

“If we’re not careful, we could end up blocking ourselves in,” Mitsuru observed.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it won’t come to that.” She wasn’t anywhere near as confident as she acted, but they had Teddie, so even if it went badly… they’d be fine.

And, of course, she had Thanatos, but she was pretty sure that unleashing an uncontrollable Persona in a room with all of her friends in it was a bad idea. So that would be shelved as the very last resort.

Two of the beasts were lined up, one behind the other. Odds were she wouldn’t be able to move both of them at once. That was fine.

There was a third one, staring them down, and Hamuko had to shield one of her eyes so that she wouldn’t look directly at it. Somehow, it gave off an air of being the most dangerous thing in the room.

“Okay, everyone stick together, and nobody but me looks up. Also, I may have to go over on my own for a bit, I’ll call you over when I’m ready for you.” At the very least, if she was forced to summon Thanatos to defend herself, nobody she cared about would be caught in the crossfire.

“You sure about this?” Shinjiro asked. She nodded.

“Positive. I-I wouldn’t try this if I weren’t.” Lies. She felt nowhere near as confident as she presented herself, it was just that no one would dare to call her out on it.

Shinjiro didn’t seem entirely sure about that, but he still didn’t try to stop her, and that was all she cared about at the moment.

And so, she moved. Slowly, cautiously, sidestepping more often than not in order to avoid attracting hostile attention. The hardest part was always walking with her back turned to the inordinately powerful Shadows, but Hamuko had fled from the Reaper enough times for it to become a routine annoyance.

She still stopped short of the wall, though. Something told her that she didn't want to meet those things in an enclosed space. She took a few breaths, and looked up.

Immediately, she used her naginata as a lever to pull herself out of the path of the charging Shadow. Thankfully, she’d had to use dodging tactics like this one before, and was thus experienced enough to barely avoid losing her balance.

The second one was easier. All she had to do was glance up for a moment as she made her way back to the others and pretend that the sudden movement didn’t startle her.

“Okay, so we just need to get on the other side of that one, and we’ll be fine,” She told her friends.

“...I’m not sure, but I think the path’s still blocked,” Yosuke pointed out.

“Yeah, but there’s not enough space to get everyone past otherwise.” At least, she didn’t think so. And she also didn’t think that this was the place to experiment.

Mitsuru sighed. “I’ll trust your judgement, Yuki, but this could very easily go wrong.”

“I know. But it’ll be okay. I know what I’m doing… well, as much as anyone can here, anyway.”

“That does not exactly inspire confidence.” But Mitsuru still crossed the room with the others, just as Hamuko had known she would. She might not have had a Social Link with the other girl yet, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be predictable at times.

Once they were through, she followed after them, just a bit more slowly, trying to work out the perfect spot to stand.

There didn’t seem to be one. With how the room was laid out, she’d be either right in front of one FOE, or directly behind the other. That wasn’t exactly a winning strategy when it came to keeping herself calm. Particularly when it seemed there would soon be little difference between the two.

Thanatos stirred in her mind, offering another solution. The option of defeating the thing blocking the path in open combat.

She dismissed the offer immediately. She remembered, quite clearly, that the last time she’d taken Thanatos’ offer of power, she’d immediately lost control and was knocked out for over a week. Not something she particularly wanted to repeat.

The Persona still ended up at the forefront of her mind, though. She could do with some extra calm. This would be the first time she’d been so close while triggering a charge.

Well. No time like the present. Hamuko looked up. She met a set of glowing red eyes.

...This had been a terrible idea. She was facing down an incredibly powerful Shadow with nothing but a naginata and Thanatos-

-And Thanatos was uncontrollable, that was why she never used him-

-What even made her think this was a good idea, anyway?

Before she could be run over or unleash Thanatos, however, a hand closed around her wrist, pulling her to safety.

“You ‘wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t sure,’ huh?” Okay, if Shinjiro was allowed to tell people he was fine, Hamuko was allowed to pretend to be more confident than she really was. Of course, she didn’t have the confidence to call him out on it in front of every other friendly Persona User that they knew, but that wasn’t the point.

“S-sorry, I…” He hadn’t let go yet. If she moved just a little they could end up holding hands… but was that too fast? Why couldn’t she like someone she was actually able to read properly? Shinjiro’s emotions were always so guarded she was lucky to get anything out of him.

But they were still so close to each other…

“Look, we can’t have our leader freezing up like that.” She thought there was concern in his voice but… what if she was just imagining it? Probably not, he cared about everyone, even if he hated to admit it, but still...

“I-I know, I- it won’t happen again.” Why was this happening? She wasn’t even using Orpheus! Did mortal terror just override everything changing her Persona gave her?

...Actually, she wouldn’t be surprised by that. Never mind, then.

Shinjiro gave her one last look-over, before letting go of her wrist and vanishing into the crowd of superpowered teenagers without another word.

...She should have grabbed his hand while she had the chance.

* * *

  
  


At the end of the path, which they had reached despite the best efforts of several FOEs, the group reached a place where two stuffed dolls lay next to each other on the ground.

They were also wrapped up in chains, because of course they were. Hamuko wondered, once again, just what was wrong with this place.

Teddie was the first to approach them. “Hm? Just some lame stuffed dolls?” Admittedly, it did seem like a bit of a letdown for the whole experience, but Hamuko wasn’t about to say that out loud. Souji and Junpei would never let her forget if she did. “Look at em, lined up all nice… what do these dolls think they are? A couple!?”

Yosuke sighed. “Uh, you’re not that different with the costume on.”

“That’s exactly my point!”

“Yosuke, why don’t you wear a costume, too, so Teddie has a partner?” Souji suggested.

“Why me!?”

“Anyway! I a-bear seeing a bunch of dolls given such blessings!” Ah, yes. Jealousy. Lovely. “Don’t you agree, Hamu-chan?” Wait, why was he pulling her into this?

“I don’t know. I think… the purpose of a Wild Card is to help others. And… these dolls… If they’re happy, then I’m glad for them.”

“H-Hamu-chan!? So you really are that kind of good person…!” The conversation paused there, at the sound of something soft hitting the floor at Hamuko’s feet.

It was a rolled up piece of paper. Unfolding it, she read it silently.

_ Thank you. I hope you find your destined partner soon, too. _

Just reading it, she couldn’t help but smile, even as she tried to avoid looking at anyone in particular, because those dolls really didn’t need to know anything about her personal life. “Y-yeah… I hope so, too.”

Maybe this place wasn’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...You know, I think this was the first time I noticed this part of the floor was even there. Or, at least, it's the first time I bothered looking past that first FOE.
> 
> They said I couldn't make a chapter out of this. Showed them.
> 
> Social Links are not always a good thing. Mostly when you realize that two of yours are entirely likely to have a violent confrontation and you can't do anything about it because you're too busy playing therapist to a dozen other people because mental health services apparently don't exist in your town. And you're not even qualified as a therapist to begin with.
> 
> Let's be honest here, if anyone were to hit their Initial Persona's cap for learning new skills and actually take notice of it, it would be Akihiko.


	25. Not Much of Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few lighthearted conversations, and a few not-so lighthearted. Mistakes are made.

Once the group got back to the actual path, progress became significantly easier. Mostly because they were actually moving the right way. And the fact that they only had two FOEs to deal with this time.

And, as such, they made it to the next set of pink doors.

“A question to the youngest lamb,” The recording spoke up. “Do you prefer bread or rice for breakfast?”

“Huh?” Ken asked. “Does it mean me?” Hamuko shrugged.

“Well, I don’t see Pharos or Nanako-chan anywhere near here.” It was a shame. She’d sort of gotten used to the Shadow boy’s company.

“Okay, then. Um… I guess I like bread better?”

“Having asked a lighthearted question unconnected to destiny, here comes question number six. You mull over the choice, unsure whether to answer it or answer it.”

“...Aren’t those the exact same thing?” Fuuka pointed out.

Hamuko nodded. “Yeah. I guess this place is finally starting to show its true nature, or something.” That was her best guess, anyway.

“A place that denies even the illusion of free will… I wonder what awaits us at the end,” Mitsuru stated.

In light of that revelation… the question itself seemed a lot less important. Really, the answer itself seemed obvious.

“Of course I’d save someone who was in danger, it doesn’t matter if I’m in love with them or not.” She paused to think about it. “Okay, maybe there’s a few people I wouldn’t save…”

“I wonder…” Rei started. “Is there anyone who would rush to save me?”

“I would,” Zen promised, almost immediately. Junpei rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, moving on…”

* * *

  
  


There didn’t seem to be much on this side of the room. Or, well, in the room in general. “Whew… It looks like this room doesn’t have any of those angel FOEs that look you in the eye,” Yosuke sighed with relief.

“I’m tired of walking,” Teddie groaned. “Can’t you pull me around like those FOEs do?”

“Why the hell would I want to stare into your eyes?”

“That’s so mean…! You promised that you’d take care of me!”

“Yeah, in our world! Which, in case you hadn’t noticed, is nowhere near here!”

“There they go again…” Souji sighed.

“Those two get along really well, don’t they?” Yukari asked.

“I guess… They’re a lively pair. A little too lively at times… though you could also say that for the rest of us.”

“One of us in particular…” Kanji muttered. Souji pretended not to notice.

Yukari leaned back against a nearby wall. “Wait, so how long have you guys known each other, anyway?”

“I met them about six months ago, when I moved to Inaba. I just found out I had powers, Yosuke stumbled with me into a TV… it all sort of snowballed from there.”

Hamuko could understand the feeling. That was basically her entire life since she was seven.

“Oh, so you’re the same as Hamuko, then. She transferred to our school at the beginning of the year.”

“I see. I didn’t realize.”

“Hey, partner!? Could you help me drag Teddie? He’s refusing to move!”

“Fine…” As Souji walked away, Yukari watched after him.

“Huh. So he’s a transfer student, too…”

“I guess he’d have to be,” Hamuko shrugged. “I was given my contract to get into the Velvet Room on my first night in town. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was the same way.”

* * *

  
  


“It smells nice here!” Teddie commented, after they found a dead end with a number of purple tables. Glowing purple. Hamuko didn’t know why she bothered trying to make sense of any of this.

“I wonder what that is,” Yukari stated. “Perfume…? Flowers…?”

“Oh, I brought food for this!” Rei spoke up. Because of course she had. “Nice-smelling spots are the perfect place to eat fermented horse mackerel, and-”

“Gah! Put it away, put it away!”

“I kinda want to relax here for a while…” Yukari sighed, before turning to Hamuko. “What do you think?”

It was a good question. On one hand, the place did smell really nice… but on the other hand, the scent could very well attract Shadows.

Shadows which they had all been easily defeating. “Go on and relax. Like you all said, there aren’t any FOEs nearby, so it should be fine.”

“Why is that how she judges this?” Junpei complained. Kanji shrugged.

“I don’t see a problem. Shadows show up, we beat the Shadows. Nothing to it.”

And no Shadows showed up, either way, so Hamuko guessed it didn’t matter.

* * *

 

  
  


“Junpei. Junpei, no. This is a bad idea.”

“Come on, Hamu-tan? What could go wrong?”

“A lot. Particularly as Teddie-kun had the exact same idea earlier with the girls from our team. It didn’t end well.”

“Well, yeah. Yuka-tan’s Yuka-tan, Ai-chan’s a robot, Mitsuru-senpai’s just scary… and you’ve got that thing where you... sort of give off an aura of death. Speaking of which, could you turn that off now?”

“Tell me you won’t do anything stupider than usual.”

“Fine, fine, I won’t! Just make it go away!”

* * *

  
  


“I’m so tired…” Yukari sighed, slumping down against a wall in the middle of the Labyrinth.

“There’s probably going to be more of those questions, too…” Hamuko agreed, taking a seat beside her.

“Yeah, probably. What’s with that whole ‘destined partner’ thing, anyway?”

“I conjecture that it will be either myself or Shinjiro-san,” Aigis stated. “Most likely the latter.” Well, if the robot did have a crush, at least she was being realistic about it.

“Yeah, that’s right. I’d say we’re finding new things out about Hamuko, but…”

“Yu-Yukari…” She could already feel her face heating up. This was why she usually avoided girl talk.

“Of course, my conjecture is most likely to be true if those questions are choosing from amongst us,” Aigis continued, “As it could also be choosing from the population of the entire world.”

“Uh, that’s still a pretty huge pool,” Chie pointed out.

“Not really.” Distract them with technicalities. The best way to get out of this with her dignity intact. “I mean, this place could be considered its own world, right?”

“So… you want it to choose Aragaki-san, right?”

“Th-that-!”

“I believe that would be correct.”

“Aigis!”

“It’s not exactly a secret, though,” Yukari shrugged. “Though I’m still not entirely sure why she likes him in the first place…”

“It’s true. On first glance, the two of them do not appear like they would be compatible,” Zen observed. “Despite that, there is a clear attraction. It… confuses me.”

“First impressions can be misleading,” Fuuka pointed out. “But… I-I’m sort of curious, too. Hamuko-chan’s really popular back home, but the only boy she’s really interested in is Shinjiro-senpai.”

Right then, there were so many eyes on Hamuko that she almost wished she could disappear. At the moment, however, she’d settle for being glad that the boys were on the other side of a large room and most likely couldn’t hear them. “Y-you aren’t going to let this go, are you?”

Several replies to the negative. She guessed there wasn’t really any way to get out of this. If she overplayed Thanatos’ intimidation factor, it might stop being as effective. Best to pick her battles.

And as for this battle… well, the only male there was Zen, and there didn’t seem to be much chance of him repeating it. And she could probably swear Aigis to silence for however long it took it to stop being important.

There were a lot of things she could tell them. How she randomly felt things from other people, but not from him, and when he did, it felt intentional, like she wasn’t stealing the emotions of someone she’d grown to care about. Almost like a gift, though there wasn’t any way she could return the favor. That all the walls he had felt almost like her own, slightly more literal masks as she pretended to be whatever her loved ones needed from her.

How he didn’t smile often, but when he did, it was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen.

But she wouldn’t. All those things were horribly embarrassing, or were too tied up in how her powers worked for them to understand even now. Or both. She’d say something else, instead.

“It… well, it’s just… I get that people find him scary for some reason, but it’s never really… registered, with me. He’s… a really nice person, and I know that- that he tries to push everyone away, but there’s still no one I’d trust more to look after everyone. If there’s anyone who I know will keep the rest of the team safe… it’s Shinjiro-senpai.” And, okay, that was still sort of mortifying, but it was over now, and hopefully she’d never have to say anything about it again.

“Hey, no fair talking about that kind of stuff without me!” Rise complained. “Even you, Fuuka-senpai?”

“S-sorry…”

“Hey, I know you girls were talking about something. Is there love talk going on?” Teddie wandered over, his feet making the same squeaking sounds as ever, as a warning for them to not linger on the topic.

“Why would we tell you that sort of thing?” Yukari pointed out. Hamuko sighed in relief. It didn’t seem like anyone on the other side of the room had noticed the full contents of the conversation.

“Loaf talk? Is there bread around?” Okay, at this point, she was pretty sure that Rei was just pretending to be so food-minded. Maybe. Rei was weird.

“Where did you even get that idea?” Right, he was relatively new to the team… and, admittedly, even for Rei, this was a stretch.

...Probably because, had things continued, the next topic could have been her and Zen. Who was right there. That would explain it.

Teddie seemed to want to say something more, but for the appearance of an Emperor Shadow like the one they’d fought on the previous floor.

...Something told Hamuko that was going to become a common occurrence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit more focused on the P3 side than usual. Aside from the Shadow attack at the end- that was my P4 side file, and there were no fire users in the party at the time because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing on the floor that is weak to fire. Right after they were ambushed by a trio of golden Shadows who all ran away after throwing Megidos at them.
> 
> ...I think the world just hates my P4 side file.
> 
> Barely any parts of this chapter seem to be related to each other at all. On the bright side, I should be done with this floor soon!


	26. FOEs and Love Potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The topic of love potions is discussed, and thrown out, multiple times.
> 
> The group properly fights an FOE.

For a time, Hamuko sat on the Labyrinth tile, staring out over the water.

Or, rather, over several different sections of a liquid that was presumably some Shadow form of water, but it was the same different thing when the FOE on the other side couldn’t get to them.

“I cannot help but feel that there would be more productive uses of our time,” Aigis commented. She shrugged.

“I guess so, but… it’s nice to see that we have a way to get away from some things here.”

“Such as the Basalts that have sunk to the bottom of the canals?” At those words, Hamuko peered over, back into the water. Sure enough, the rocks were still there, glaring up.

She’d never thought about it before, but being unable to swim or drown was probably a very unpleasant thing, when trapped deep underwater.

“Yes. Exactly like that.”

* * *

  
  


“A dressing table… I have heard that they are magical items that cast spells upon women.”

“...Spells?” Shinjiro sounded skeptical. Aigis nodded.

“Yes, that is what Junpei-san taught me.”

Yukari groaned. “Are you teaching Aigis nonsense again?”

“She asked me how it works, and that’s really the only thing I can think of.”

Hamuko sighed. “You’re allowed to tell her that you don’t know the answer, you know.”

“Hamuko-san, Junpei-san, I have a question. In the case of men, what would be used to cast a similar spell on them?” Hamuko figured that there couldn’t be any harm in letting Junpei answer first, so long as she was there to correct anything clearly wrong.

“F-for men…? Er, well, men don’t really use a lot of makeup. But a love potion might work.”

“Junpei. Be realistic. Where would anyone get a love potion?”

“Ah, would you like one for yourself, Hamu-tan? Maybe in the case of- ow!”

Satisfied, Hamuko dismissed Shiisaa. “This conversation is over.”

* * *

  
  


“Well, hello, stray lambs who must be getting weary of this introduction every time.” Honestly, Hamuko thought it was nice. Some amount of consistency in a place filled with Shadows and other things that made life… interesting. “Destiny is like a shoe made of glass. Why is this?”

“Huh…?” Akihiko paused, before snapping his fingers. She didn’t think he noticed the sparks that appeared when he did so. “I get it. You probably want us to say that even though it looks nice, it’s fragile. But this is what I say… destiny is like a shoe made of metal. It can be a shackle that keeps you from moving but you can also take it off at any time!”

That was a very Akihiko statement. Not that the recording seemed to notice.

“Well then, onto question number seven.”

“Wha- don’t ignore me!”

Shinjiro sighed. “When will you learn that the voice doesn’t care at all what we say? If it even can…”

“Hmm… Destiny is like a shoe made of metal… that’s a very apt way of putting it, Akihiko.”

Hamuko nodded. “Yeah, Mitsuru-senpai’s right. It’s very… you.”

“Wait, was that supposed to be inspiring?” Chie seemed to be completely lost.

And then the question appeared. “It’s asking… if I’m starting to get tired of all these questions.” She wasn’t sure why she’d expected anything else. “If I ever find the person who set these…”

“What? What would you do?” Rei asked.

“I’m not sure. Something.” Probably involving Thanatos, but she didn’t want to scare anyone. She needed time away from that Persona if she wanted to still be able to use it as an instrument of fear.

“But that’s mean! It’s important to know who your destined partner is!”

“Why are you so invested in this? You’re not even answering the questions!”

“You’re distressing Rei,” Zen scolded Hamuko. “Pull yourself together and take this seriously.”

“A-Are you, like… embarrassed to find out?” Kanji suggested. She just groaned.

“We’re not talking about this.” She hit the button, watched the chains vanish, and strode right through the doors.

The instant she was through, another loud noise sounded through the Labyrinth. Akihiko looked up. “It must be that ordeal thing again. I’m getting pumped already.”

“We still have to find it first,” Yukari reminded him. “And don’t get so excited! This could be dangerous!”

Hamuko sighed. “Yukari. Shadows. Labyrinths. FOEs. Elizabeth.”

“...Okay. Fair point.” And that was all that needed to be said.

* * *

  
  


Souji and Teddie walked together through the Labyrinth, the bear Shadow pausing every so often to sniff the air. “Teddie, why do you want to find a love potion, anyway?”

“Who wouldn’t want one? Having everyone around me… it’d be like a dream come true!”

“Wouldn’t you have to dose them first?” He wasn’t surprised by the answer, really. Teddie thrived on positive attention, and he got it so rarely, it was easy to see why he’d enjoy the idea. However, Souji wasn’t sure that he’d thought his plan through all the way.

“That…” And confirmation. “Well, I’m still sure we could find another use for one!”

“Like what?”

“Well…. Hamu-chan likes Gakky, right?”

“She’s not exactly subtle about it…” It was pretty easy to see, when their leader kept sneaking glances at Shinjiro when she thought nobody was looking. “But… I don’t really think we need to dose Aragaki-san with a love potion. They can figure it out on their own.”

Really, he was almost surprised they hadn’t worked things out already. But given that he’d outright been told that the eldest three Persona Users couldn’t communicate, it was to be expected that there’d be a few stumbling blocks.

“But, Sensei…”

“Teddie. We don’t need a love potion. Come on, the others are probably getting worried.” And he didn’t even know where they’d find such a potion, anyway.

...Well, maybe the Nurse’s Office, but there was a reason nobody ever went there.

* * *

  
  


“So, where were the two of you earlier?” Hamuko asked, once Souji and Teddie made their reappearance by the riverside. “After you wandered off earlier, I got kind of worried.”

“It wasn’t anything important,” The other Wild Card replied, adjusting his glasses. “So… we’re going into that room, huh?”

“Yeah… I guess it was too much to hope that we could have avoided it forever. At least we’ll be on the other side of the FOEs this time.” The section of the room that they had to go through to reach the odd dark door was rather small this time.

“You should be careful,” Rise reminded them. “What you have to fight on the other side… I think it might be an FOE!”

“I’m feeling it, too!” Fuuka agreed. “Don’t go in unless you’re absolutely ready!”

“So… never, then?” Really, Hamuko didn’t think anyone could ever be ready for this. Still… perhaps numbers would help them.

“We can’t just stay here forever, though,” Nanako pointed out. “Dad will get worried!”

“I wasn’t really going to suggest it. Okay. Three… two…” She opened the door. “Now, Yukari!”

The first arrow shot by the red and gold FOE flew was harmlessly redirected into the… was there even a ceiling?

Okay, there didn’t seem to be a way to get past that thing without a fight. It also seemed like there wasn’t any real room to maneuver so they’d have to push the ones best matched against this thing to the front.

“I’m going to need a scan on that thing, fast!” She wasn’t sure whether she was talking to Fuuka or Rise. Honestly, she’d take data from Nanako so long as it was accurate.

“R-right! Starting now!” Fuuka replied. Now they just needed to hold out long enough to see if that thing had a weakness. Simple.

Right.

The large Shadow’s form crackled with magic. Some sort of buff spell, though Hamuko couldn’t tell which one it was. It honestly didn’t matter, beyond the point that her opponent was more powerful than it had already been and that would make the battle a lot more difficult.

The horse reared, and smashed down, hooves causing cracks to appear in the tile and sending out a shockwave that nearly bowled her over. It had used Tarukaja, then.

That, or it was just that strong normally, in which case they were in trouble. But she wasn’t going to think about that.

The first thing Hamuko tended to do, in this kind of situation, was throw elements at the target to make Fuuka’s job easier. She currently had access to wind and fire. She’d start with fire.

“Agilao!” The fire attack splashed off almost harmlessly. So it either had strong resistances to magic, or a strong resistance to fire. Possibly both, but she didn’t think so.

And if it wasn’t harmed all that badly with fire, the logical conclusion would be…

“Try using ice!” Fuuka instructed the rest of them, just a few moments before Hamuko completed the thought herself.

Of course, it didn’t really matter who said it, as the immediate hallway became a blizzard either way. And then the FOE disintegrated after it was kicked in the face. Because of course it did.

“Okay, we’re done here!” Chie declared, as though there hadn’t once been a powerful Shadow right where she was standing.

“Well, no time to rest,” Akihiko pointed out. “Let’s keep moving.” That was strange… Hamuko had almost expected him to react to the fight in the same way as Chie.

...It probably wasn’t important.

* * *

  
  


“Ted, come on, the stairs are that way!”

“But it smells nice around here, too!” Teddie pointed out. Hamuko sighed.

“I guess we can stop for a bit… I mean, we’ve got an escape route right there.”

“That’s good…” Junpei sighed. “It feels so nice here, I’m starting to get sleepy…” But… none of them had needed any sort of sleep since they’d ended up here.

“S-sorry…” Yosuke mumbled. “I’m gonna take… a short nap… so someone… wake me…” Chie reached over to shake him.

“Hey… Yosuke… You’re relaxing a little… too much…”

Hamuko watched the others fall asleep around her, her own eyelids starting to feel heavy. But… this was a Shadow nest, right? It was too dangerous to fall asleep.

Unbidden, Thanatos shifted to the forefront of her mind, chasing away all of her drowsiness. Or maybe it was the sheer power now hidden under her skin keeping her awake.

Either way, it was probably a good thing, given that it let her see the angels and butterflies approach. “Rise-chan, Fuuka-chan, do you think you can wake up the others?” She asked. “I… think they might need your help.” At least these were Shadows she didn’t need help to face… after all, her sub-Persona was Shiisaa, and these Shadows were weak to wind.

And while Thanatos wasn’t summoned, it was still his power she was drawing on. So a simple Magaru ended with Hamuko’s winged opponents being caught in a large tornado.

Hopefully no one asked her to explain that later.

Once the winds died down, she turned back to the others, who were in varying states of wakefulness. “Are you all okay?”

Chie nodded. “Yeah. You really save our bacon. I guess that’s why you’re the leader, huh?”

“Yeah, we would have been toast if you hadn’t managed to stay awake,” Akihiko agreed. “All of us were fast asleep as soon as we sat down.”

“Maybe it’s because of what happened in the last Labyrinth?” Ken suggested. Well, it was agree with that, or explain Thanatos…

“Y-yeah, sure. Let’s go with that.”

“I’m more interested in the amount of power behind the magic she used,” Mitsuru commented. “That is… something we don’t normally see even back home, unless she’s using one of her most powerful Personas.”

“Orpheus is still Orpheus,” Hamuko stated. “Really, it just… happened.” She hadn’t meant to change Personas, she wasn’t sure if staying awake was a function of Thanatos or something else, it was just… a thing that happened.

And, given what she’d have to experiment with to prove otherwise, maybe it was better that way.

* * *

  
  


“We’ve come pretty far in…” Yukiko noted as they reached the fourth floor. “I wonder how far this goes.”

Zen turned to Rei, who was staring up at the… Hamuko still wasn’t sure if she could call it a ceiling or not. “...Rei, are you all right?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Huh? Wait a second! The presence of Shadows just got stronger!” Rise warned the group.

“I’m sensing something powerful further down…” Fuuka added.

“It’s like the one at the bottom of the last Labyrinth,” Nanako finished. “At least, I think so… There doesn’t seem like there’s much of this one left.”

“So, that means there’ll be no more questions soon, right?” She wasn’t sure if she should have been relieved or not.

Rei nodded. “Yeah, that means we can find your destined partner!”

The answer, quite clearly, was ‘not.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third floor done! ...Of course, this brings up the question of whether the next major fight should be against Liz or Theo...
> 
> Eventually, Hamuko is going to have to explain Thanatos. Clearly, that is not going to be right now.


End file.
